Space Junk Is a Problem We Know How to Solve

In August, a stray upper stage from a SpaceX Falcon 9 struck the moon. Roughly the size of a school bus and weighing 4 metric tons, it hit the lunar surface near Einstein Crater at approximately 5,400 miles per hour, carving out a substantial new crater. Had a similarly massive piece of debris survived reentry and struck a populated area on Earth, it would have caused significant damage and loss of life. And, just last week, large pieces of space debris fell on land in both Minnesota and Indonesia, presumably from a Chinese rocket launched on 14 October. These events…