Introduction

A brief inventory of space debris includes: a spatula, a glove, a mirror, a bag with astronaut tools, spent rocket stages, bolts, paint chips, defunct spacecraft, and around 3,000 dead satellites, orbiting Earth at speeds of roughly 18,000 m.p.h.

Most space junk is moving in low Earth orbi...

China and companies like SpaceX, OneWeb, and Amazon aim to launch thousands of satellites into lower Earth orbits to reduce the time it takes for a signal to travel from the satellite to the user.

But some space experts are concerned that satellite mega-constellati...

Two emerging technologies may propel NASA and the rest of the world into an era of faster, low-cost exploration that would lead to more exploration and democratise access to the Solar System.

• A new generation of companies is developing new rockets for small satellites. Rocket Lab has...