It’s cold, dark and isolated here, with dead satellites scattered across the vastness. This is where spacecraft are shunted off to at the end of their operational lives — two places, actually, very far apart. Both are graveyards. “Graveyard orbit,” tens of thousands of kilometers above Earth, is for satellites operating at the highest altitudes. The “spacecraft graveyard,” on the other hand, lies in the South Pacific Ocean — 4 kilometers deep, twice the area of North America and farther from humans than anywhere on the planet. Both locations help keep working orbits cleaner by preventing defunct spacecraft from adding…
Apogee
NASA calls it the most advanced radar system it has ever launched, but the world’s most accomplished space agency couldn’t have pulled it off if not for a partnership with its Indian counterpart. The first-of-its-kind NISAR satellite will provide information for disaster response, infrastructure monitoring, agricultural management and other uses by producing a dynamic, three-dimensional view of Earth in unprecedented detail, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said. NISAR stands for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. ISRO is the Indian Space Research Organisation. NISAR launched in July 2025 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southeastern India aboard an ISRO Geosynchronous Satellite Launch…
The European nations in NATO have observed firsthand the value of commercial space in national security: Commercial operators exposed Russian troop movements leading up to the invasion of Ukraine and they enabled Ukraine to maintain command and control in the face of Russian cyberattacks. Now, defense ministers have adopted the first NATO Commercial Space Strategy to integrate commercial solutions quicker and more flexibly and to ensure access to commercial assets in peacetime, crisis and conflict, NATO said at its website. The decision came at a June 2025 defense ministers meeting in Brussels after a year of consultation with some 300…
The Royal New Zealand Air Force has established its first dedicated space unit with the reactivation of a group created to support allied operations during World War II through the innovative use of radar technology. Now, the mission of No. 62 Squadron shifts to space domain awareness — monitoring, analyzing and understanding space activity to safeguard national and international interests. “Space is vital for modern life,” Defence Minister Judith Collins said during a July 2025 reactivation ceremony at Air Force Base Auckland. “This is an important signal that we’re taking space security seriously. Recent global developments have highlighted the need…
U.S. space imaging companies are finding new customers in nations that may lack homegrown expertise. The opportunities arise as demand in the U.S. promises to shrink with government streamlining. Here are examples from a June 2025 SpaceNews roundup: BlackSky signed nearly $20 million in agreements to support India’s commercial Earth observation efforts. The company specializes in imagery and analytics. Virginia-based BlackSky also reached an agreement with Indonesia worth $50 million that’s similar to its deal with India. Planet Labs, with a global imaging constellation of more than 200 satellites, signed a $230 million, seven-year agreement with an unnamed Indo-Pacific customer…
The possibility of refueling satellites on orbit, once the stuff of science fiction, soon could become a reality as companies backed by lucrative commercial investment and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) contracts move forward with in-space refueling demonstrations. Meanwhile, the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) continue to evaluate refueling for its cost-saving potential. One frequently cited advantage is the extension of operational lifespans. Traditionally, satellites become inoperable when they deplete their fuel supplies, even if the rest of their hardware continues to function. This can lead to the need for replacement satellites and contribute to the mounting…
The Top 10 list of the worst breakups in space, those that generated the most debris, consists of two widely condemned anti-satellite tests, five accidental explosions, the catastrophic collision of two objects and one incident whose cause remains unknown. No. 6 on the list, though, stands out for the pattern it represents: the November 2022 explosion in heavily traveled low Earth orbit (LEO) of a new Chinese Long March 6A rocket. The blast created 794 pieces of trackable debris, according to a catalog at space-track.org that’s kept by U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) and uses data from the military’s Space Surveillance…
The Soviet Union’s launch of the world’s first artificial satellite in 1957 is best known for igniting the Space Age, a period of unprecedented scientific achievement and competition between the Soviets and United States that eventually led the U.S. to land a man on the moon. Sputnik, which means fellow traveler in Russian, circled Earth every 96 minutes, sending radio signals back to the planet strong enough to be detected by amateur radio operators. The launch did more than start a technological battle for space supremacy. The satellite’s rocket body, which burned up two months after the October launch, is…
With the rapid growth of satellite launches and commercial ventures such as Starlink and OneWeb, technological advancements have soared. But this progress comes with a challenge: the increasing threat of orbital debris. From old satellites and used rocket parts to collision fragments and even stray tools, orbital debris poses major risks to active satellites, astronaut safety and future space missions. Given the greater likelihood of debris-related collisions, many experts say urgent action is needed to rein in debris. However, absent binding rules among nations and private satellite operators to manage debris, what’s the best way forward? Some experts suggest, at…
When the Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967 to establish international guidelines for policing ventures in space, only two spacefaring nations were launching spacecraft – the Soviet Union and the United States. The space debris they left behind – now commonly referred to as space junk – seemed like a problem for future generations to solve. But now, private companies are launching satellites worldwide and even producing megaconstellations that contribute hundreds of objects to the traffic in low Earth orbit (LEO). Many scientists are sounding the alarm that space debris, no matter how small, is a big problem. At…