The US government is moving to tackle the problem of space junk. Shortly after he announced his intentions to create a “space force” wing of the military on Monday, President Trump signed Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD3) at the third meeting of the newly revived National Space Council. It’s the most concerted effort by the US government to spin up a traffic control system for all the objects that orbit Earth.
The directive sets new goals for NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Transportation with the aim of improving each agency’s approach toward mitigating the growing problem of space debris. Those goals include making it easier to detect smaller space junk, improving these agencies’...
