Legislation and Proposals Aim to Tackle Space Debris and Boost Satellite Launches

The Senate Commerce Committee has advanced the Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act, which directs NASA to establish an active debris removal program and support missions to remove orbital debris. The bill also outlines the role of NASA in assisting the Commerce Department with the development of a space traffic coordination system called TraCSS. NASA's role will involve creating an integrated development environment called HORIZON to provide insight and guidance on space situational awareness data sources. The Commerce Department will be responsible for developing a prioritized list of orbital debris to remove. The TraCSS system will focus on tracking objects in orbit initially, with plans to expand to launch collision avoidance and tracking reentries in the future.