If a satellite falls on your house, space law protects you – 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. Could this have been prevented? What would have happened if there was damage? And how will new commercial companies be regulated as space activities and launches increase exponenti...
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