Title 42 — The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73

§18441 National and international orbital debris mitigation

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 159— - SPACE EXPLORATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND SCIENCE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER XI— - OTHER MATTERS › § 18441

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Requires the United States to lead a national and international effort to prevent, reduce, and remove orbital debris. It notes that 10 national space agencies (including NASA) and the European Space Agency agree on the need to limit space junk. NASA must take a strong role and urge other U.S. agencies, like the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce, to make sure their foreign counterparts know and follow these commitments. Calls for three main actions: agree on spacecraft design, operations, and end-of-life plans to avoid creating nonworking objects; build a strong space-situation awareness system to detect collision risks and share trajectory data for avoidance; and have federal agencies create a strategy for the President with recommendations for international cooperation. The Administrator must keep and strengthen talks with other spacefaring countries through the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and elsewhere. The Director of OSTP, working with the National Security Council Director and using the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology process, must prepare the overall strategy for the President to review.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §18441

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Congress makes the following findings:

(1)A national and international effort is needed to develop a coordinated approach towards the prevention, negation, and removal of orbital debris.

(2)The guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee provide a consensus understanding of 10 national space agencies (including NASA) plus the European Space Agency on the necessity of mitigating the creation of space debris and measures for doing so. NASA’s participation on the Committee should be robust, and NASA should urge other space-relevant Federal agencies (including the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce) to work to ensure that their counterpart agencies in foreign governments are aware of these national commitments and the importance in which the United States holds them.

(3)Key components of such an approach should include—

(A)a process for debris prevention through agreements regarding spacecraft design, operations, and end-of-life disposition plans to minimize orbiting vehicles or elements which are nonfunctional;

(B)the development of a robust Space Situational Awareness network that can identify potential collisions and provide sufficient trajectory and orbital data to enable avoidance maneuvers;

(C)the interagency development of an overall strategy for review by the President, with recommendations for proposed international collaborative efforts to address this challenge.

(b)(1)The Administrator shall, in consultation with such other departments and agencies of the Federal Government as the Administrator considers appropriate, continue and strengthen discussions with the representatives of other space-faring countries, within the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and elsewhere, to deal with this orbital debris mitigation.

(2)For purposes of carrying out this subsection, the Director of OSTP, in coordination with the Director of the National Security Council and using the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology coordinating mechanism, shall develop an overall strategy for review by the President, with recommendations for proposed international collaborative efforts to address this challenge.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 18441

Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73