So many satellites. Can we clean up space?

At the close of 2022, a European satellite unfurled a glimmering silver sail behind it. The purpose of this appendage was simple: to accelerate the satellite’s self-destruction by pushing it into the Earth’s atmosphere. 

Strange as it may sound at first, this was in fact just the latest in a growing wave of efforts to address a burgeoning problem facing humanity’s endeavors in space – the proliferation of debris and satellites orbiting our planet. 

We have essentially been treating space as a junkyard.

And the challenge is becoming no easier, with the United States granting Amazon authorization in early February to launch more than 3,000 satellites – not to mention a Russian missile that destroyed a defunct Soviet satellite in November 2021, creating a fresh cloud of debris that will endanger spacecraft for