
Copernical Team
Space law protects you from falling debris, but there are no legal penalties for leaving junk in orbit

On May 8, 2021, a piece of space junk from a Chinese rocket fell uncontrolled back to Earth and landed in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives. A year ago, in May 2020, another Chinese rocket met the same fate when it plummeted out of control into the waters off the West African coast. No one knew when or where either of these pieces of space junk were going to hit, so it was a relief when neither crashed on land or injured anyone.
Space debris is any nonfunctional human-made object in space.As a professor of space and society focused on space governance, I've noticed that there are three questions the public always asks when falling space debris gets into the news.
Solar Orbiter images first coronal mass ejections

- First Solar Orbiter movies showing coronal mass ejections (CMEs)
- A pair of CMEs were detected by multiple instruments during February’s close flyby of the Sun
- CMEs are eruptions of particles from the solar atmosphere that blast out into the Solar System and have the potential to trigger space weather at Earth
- Solar Orbiter will begin its main science mission in November this year
- Solar Orbiter is a space mission of international collaboration between ESA and NASA
New ESA contracts to advance Prometheus and Phoebus projects

ESA is forging ahead with advanced developments in two flagship space transportation demonstration projects, Prometheus and Phoebus. This will benefit Europe’s new Ariane 6 launcher in the near-term, and prepare for a new generation of European launch vehicles in the next decade.
SBIRS GEO-5 encapsulated ahead of upcoming launch

On-time delivery top priority at Space Development Agency

STPSat-6 safely arrives in Florida

Roth, Brown, Raymond present Air and Space Forces priorities to Congress

Modernization investments needed to protect space domain, Space Force Chief Says

CATALYST Develops Automated Workflow for South African National Space Agency
