The UK Space Agency has awarded a £61 million contract to ClearSpace to lead the country's first mission to remove defunct satellites from orbit by 2029.
The Soviet-era Meteor-2-7 satellite has fragmented in orbit, creating a new cloud of space debris more than 45 years after its initial launch.
SpaceX is calling for standardized data-sharing among satellite operators to mitigate collision risks as the number of active spacecraft in low-Earth orbit continues to grow.
NASA has launched the SSPICY mission to test autonomous inspection technologies for orbital debris using the Starfish Space Otter spacecraft.
In September 2026, 77 spacecraft concluded their missions, including three Russian units and a significant number of Starlink satellites.
NASA reports 34,054 artificial objects currently tracked in Earth's orbit, with the United States, Russia, and China accounting for the majority of the total.
Starfish Space is launching its first Otter spacecraft next month for a $15 million NASA inspection mission after seven years of development and $150 million in funding.
