Amid Crowded Skies, FAA Kills Rule Aimed at Regulating Space Junk
What's the administration thinking here?
The Trump administration is backing off a rule aimed at stopping commercial space companies from leaving rocket bodies in Earth’s orbit, a practice that experts say could threaten public safety and telecommunications.
The Federal Aviation Administration first proposed the measure in 2023, under the Biden administration, in hopes of curbing the growing junkyard of debris circling the planet. It would have required companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to safely remove such spacecraft within 25 years of launch, saying they “pose a significant risk to people on the ground due to their mass and the uncertainty of where they will land.”
Officials cited examples such as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reentering Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest in March 2021, which created streaks of lights across the night sky and dropped a tank on a farm in Washington state.
SpaceX and other companies, however, criticized the proposal, citing concerns that included its cost, and in January, the FAA nixed the rule, saying the agency needs more time to research it.
“FAA intends to review the space launch industry cost inputs and expectations with respect to debris mitigation activities,” the FAA said, adding it would also look at the agency’s authority to enact such regulations. In response to questions for this story, an agency spokesperson reiterated that rationale.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment about the withdrawal.
The action is a concession to the commercial space industry and follows moves by President Donald Trump’s administration last year to roll back regulations meant to protect the environment and the public during rocket launches. “The Trump administration is committed to cementing America’s dominance in space without compromising public safety or national security,” a White House spokesperson said last summer.
Critics, however, said the government was missing an opportunity to control debris — and endangering the public in the process. Rockets can be hundreds of feet tall and typically are made up of multiple parts, known as stages. After any lower stages fall away, the upper stage continues on into space to deploy payloads such as satellites or to perform other missions.
“Instead of requiring companies to responsibly dispose of these upper stages, the U.S. has decided to roll the dice on a person or a plane getting hit by falling debris,” said Ewan Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia and junior fellow at the Outer Space Institute, a nonprofit that supported the rule.
Wright’s research with colleagues found a 20% to 29% chance that debris from a reentering rocket would kill at least one bystander sometime in the next decade.
No deaths have occurred from falling space debris yet. But minor injuries have been documented, including a boy in China whose toe was broken and a woman who was hit on the shoulder in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2024, a piece of metal from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida.
The explosions of two SpaceX Starship megarockets last year that rained debris over the Caribbean brought new attention to the danger to …
What's the administration thinking here?
The Trump administration is backing off a rule aimed at stopping commercial space companies from leaving rocket bodies in Earth’s orbit, a practice that experts say could threaten public safety and telecommunications.
The Federal Aviation Administration first proposed the measure in 2023, under the Biden administration, in hopes of curbing the growing junkyard of debris circling the planet. It would have required companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to safely remove such spacecraft within 25 years of launch, saying they “pose a significant risk to people on the ground due to their mass and the uncertainty of where they will land.”
Officials cited examples such as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reentering Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest in March 2021, which created streaks of lights across the night sky and dropped a tank on a farm in Washington state.
SpaceX and other companies, however, criticized the proposal, citing concerns that included its cost, and in January, the FAA nixed the rule, saying the agency needs more time to research it.
“FAA intends to review the space launch industry cost inputs and expectations with respect to debris mitigation activities,” the FAA said, adding it would also look at the agency’s authority to enact such regulations. In response to questions for this story, an agency spokesperson reiterated that rationale.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment about the withdrawal.
The action is a concession to the commercial space industry and follows moves by President Donald Trump’s administration last year to roll back regulations meant to protect the environment and the public during rocket launches. “The Trump administration is committed to cementing America’s dominance in space without compromising public safety or national security,” a White House spokesperson said last summer.
Critics, however, said the government was missing an opportunity to control debris — and endangering the public in the process. Rockets can be hundreds of feet tall and typically are made up of multiple parts, known as stages. After any lower stages fall away, the upper stage continues on into space to deploy payloads such as satellites or to perform other missions.
“Instead of requiring companies to responsibly dispose of these upper stages, the U.S. has decided to roll the dice on a person or a plane getting hit by falling debris,” said Ewan Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia and junior fellow at the Outer Space Institute, a nonprofit that supported the rule.
Wright’s research with colleagues found a 20% to 29% chance that debris from a reentering rocket would kill at least one bystander sometime in the next decade.
No deaths have occurred from falling space debris yet. But minor injuries have been documented, including a boy in China whose toe was broken and a woman who was hit on the shoulder in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2024, a piece of metal from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida.
The explosions of two SpaceX Starship megarockets last year that rained debris over the Caribbean brought new attention to the danger to …
Amid Crowded Skies, FAA Kills Rule Aimed at Regulating Space Junk
What's the administration thinking here?
The Trump administration is backing off a rule aimed at stopping commercial space companies from leaving rocket bodies in Earth’s orbit, a practice that experts say could threaten public safety and telecommunications.
The Federal Aviation Administration first proposed the measure in 2023, under the Biden administration, in hopes of curbing the growing junkyard of debris circling the planet. It would have required companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX to safely remove such spacecraft within 25 years of launch, saying they “pose a significant risk to people on the ground due to their mass and the uncertainty of where they will land.”
Officials cited examples such as a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket reentering Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Northwest in March 2021, which created streaks of lights across the night sky and dropped a tank on a farm in Washington state.
SpaceX and other companies, however, criticized the proposal, citing concerns that included its cost, and in January, the FAA nixed the rule, saying the agency needs more time to research it.
“FAA intends to review the space launch industry cost inputs and expectations with respect to debris mitigation activities,” the FAA said, adding it would also look at the agency’s authority to enact such regulations. In response to questions for this story, an agency spokesperson reiterated that rationale.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment about the withdrawal.
The action is a concession to the commercial space industry and follows moves by President Donald Trump’s administration last year to roll back regulations meant to protect the environment and the public during rocket launches. “The Trump administration is committed to cementing America’s dominance in space without compromising public safety or national security,” a White House spokesperson said last summer.
Critics, however, said the government was missing an opportunity to control debris — and endangering the public in the process. Rockets can be hundreds of feet tall and typically are made up of multiple parts, known as stages. After any lower stages fall away, the upper stage continues on into space to deploy payloads such as satellites or to perform other missions.
“Instead of requiring companies to responsibly dispose of these upper stages, the U.S. has decided to roll the dice on a person or a plane getting hit by falling debris,” said Ewan Wright, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of British Columbia and junior fellow at the Outer Space Institute, a nonprofit that supported the rule.
Wright’s research with colleagues found a 20% to 29% chance that debris from a reentering rocket would kill at least one bystander sometime in the next decade.
No deaths have occurred from falling space debris yet. But minor injuries have been documented, including a boy in China whose toe was broken and a woman who was hit on the shoulder in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2024, a piece of metal from the International Space Station crashed through the roof of a home in Naples, Florida.
The explosions of two SpaceX Starship megarockets last year that rained debris over the Caribbean brought new attention to the danger to …
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