Hickenlooper Heralds Committee Passage of His Bill to Clear Space Junk, Protect Space Exploration

ORBITS Act would create landmark program to clean up dangerous orbital debris threatening space exploration, satellites, and commercial space operations

Bill unanimously passed Senate last Congress

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, celebrated the committee passage of his bipartisan Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act. The bill would establish a first-of-its-kind demonstration program that would reduce the nearly 1 million pieces of space junk in orbit.

"Space junk speeding through Earth's orbit endangers our satellites and space operations," said Hickenlooper. "Removing that debris is common sense and needs to happen before it causes real damage to essential space operations."

The ORBITS Act passed the Senate unanimously in the 117th Congress and 118th Congress.

Space junk, or orbital debris, currently threatens human space exploration, scientific research missions, and emerging commercial space services. There are approximately 8,000 metric tons of debris currently in orbit, including at least 900,000 individual pieces of debris that are potentially lethal to satellites. Because of the threats from debris already in orbit, simply preventing more debris in the future is not enough. The ORBITS Act will jumpstart a program focused on research, development, and the demonstration of technologies capable of safely carrying out successful Active Debris Remediation (ADR) missions to create a robust commercial market for these services.

In recent years, NASA canceled a planned spacewalk and maneuvered the International Space Station (ISS) to avoid colliding with orbital debris. Due to growing amounts of debris, the ISS has performed numerous Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuvers (PDAM) in the past year alone.

Specifically, the bill contains the following provisions:

• Orbital Debris Remediation List
  • Directs NASA, in coordination with the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and the National Space Council, to publish a list of debris objects that pose the greatest risk to the safety of orbiting spacecraft and on-orbit activities
    
    
• Active Orbital Debris Remediation Demonstration Program
  • Directs NASA to establish a demonstration program to partner with industry in developing technology for remediating debris objects through repurposing or removal from orbit
    
    
    • The NASA program will promote competition by incentivizing two or moreteams of technology developers to conduct demonstrations of successful debris remediation
      
  • Asks NASA to partner with other nations to address debris in orbit that belongs to them
    
    
• Active Debris Remediation (ADR) Services
  • Encourages the U.S. government to buy ADR services from industry partners once they succeed in the demonstration and are commercially available
    
    
  • Requires an economic assessment of the long-term demand for ADR services
    
    
• Uniform Orbital Debris Standards
  • Directs the National Space Council to update the Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices (ODMSP) used by U.S. government space missions
    
    
    • Encourages the FAA and FCC to use the updated standards and practices as the basis for federal regulations applicable to all space activities
      
      
    • Directs the U.S. to encourage other nations to align their regulations with ours to encourage effective and non-discriminatory regulation worldwide
      
      
• Space Traffic Coordination Standard Practices
  • Directs the Department of Commerce, in coordination with the National Space Council and the FCC, to develop and promote standard practices for avoiding near misses and collisions between spacecraft in orbit

Key supporters of the bill include the Aerospace Industry Association, Secure World Foundation, and CONFERS.

Full text of the ORBITS Act is available HERE.

###