A SpaceX spacecraft's battery debris survived reentry and crashed into a Florida home

Space trash forced astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter

An inactive Russian satellite broke up into nearly 200 pieces, prompting astronauts on the space station to take shelter in a docked spacecraft and a capsule that could be used to escape in case of emergency.

Metal wreckage found in a Canadian farm turned out to be SpaceX spacecraft debris

The pieces of the wreck included a 36-kilogram aluminum spear more than 2 meters long, and its origins were confirmed by satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell. No government acknowledged or took accountability for the space trash, which SpaceX later quietly retrieved.

When retired, the International Space Station will undergo a controlled de-orbit

With plans to transition low-Earth orbit operations to private entities, the ISS is expected to be retired by 2030, using a SpaceX de-orbit vehicle. Although reentry will burn up most hardware, NASA intends for any surviving debris to fall into an uninhabited ocean area.

The Columbia disaster contributed to the end of the Space Shuttle program and NASA's reliance on commercial partners such as SpaceX and Boeing to transport astronauts and cargo.

Space trash is making low Earth orbit increasingly dangerous for spacecraft

Millions of fragments from satellites, rockets, and other spacecraft that are no longer operational move thousands of meters per second as they circle Earth. Even a piece of debris a centimeter in size can cause mission-ending damage to space stations, telescopes, and astronauts.

By 2030, experts estimate a 1 in 1000 chance of a plane being hit by space debris

As more satellites and spacecraft are launched, the rate of space debris re-entering Earth's atmosphere, including those that do not burn up completely, increases. International space agencies and air traffic control systems will need to coordinate to develop standardized methods and technical solutions to prevent and minimize future crisis scenarios.

You are 65,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be hit by space trash

In 2023, about 1,500 pieces of space junk fell to Earth, with most consisting of payload fragmentation debris. The vast majority that falls back to Earth burns up before reaching the surface, making it three times less likely to be struck by space trash than by a meteorite.

By 2028, a space trash-avoiding maneuver is expected to occur every 18 seconds

As the number of active Starlink satellites increases, greater efforts will be required to keep low Earth orbit free of debris, sparking a new technological space race. NASA has found that using lasers to manage small and medium debris could save up to $9B over 30 years.

A financial analysis of space trash cleanup strategies identified long-term benefits

Despite significant initial costs, a NASA report found that removing small debris would provide savings from preventing mission-ending damage, which would offset expenses within a decade. Financial benefits would also come from using less fuel for maneuvers to avoid collisions with debris.

In 2018, SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit for publicity

As of February 2023, the vehicle and its mannequin driver—dubbed "Starman"—have completed three and a quarter revolutions around the sun. One paper estimated that the car has a 22% chance of crashing into Earth within the next 15 million years.

Evidence suggests some of the Challenger's crew may have been alive after the explosion

Recovery of the intact crew cabin and later analysis of flight data led investigators to conclude the astronauts likely survived the initial breakup and remained alive during the roughly two-minute descent before the cabin struck the ocean.

Elon Musk's $100M investment in SpaceX was lost to three failed rocket launches

The attempts with Falcon 1 endangered the company's future but provided valuable information from which to iterate and follow up with the successful first privately funded orbital launch in history and multiple ISS resupply missions.

SpaceX was built to achieve Elon Musk's vision of making humans an interplanetary species.

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

Falcon 9's first stage is able to land within a 30-foot diameter target consistently

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket releases its reusable first stage hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface as it travels thousands of mile per hour. The stage often then lands on an autonomous ocean drone in the middle of the sea.

View the docket of future SpaceX launches

SpaceX has established an efficient schedule for launches of ISS crew shuttles and Starlink satellites, with blastoffs occurring just under once every four days in 2023—a pace that has since accelerated as the company has won more contracts.

The 1978 prediction of the Kessler syndrome popularized the risks of space trash

A paper published by NASA scientists Don Kessler and Burton Cour-Palais described a scenario where the density of objects in orbit becomes so high that collisions between them create a cascading effect of runaway debris, preventing future space travel. The risks were confirmed from returned telescope parts showing debris impacts.

See how SpaceX has impacted costs throughout spaceflight history.

In 2022, a piece of Challenger was discovered on the ocean floor

While searching for World War II wreckage near Cape Canaveral, Florida, for a documentary, divers discovered debris on the seafloor that NASA later confirmed to be a piece of Space Shuttle Challenger wreckage. The piece is at least 15-by-15 feet in size and partially buried under sand.

The International Space Station is slowly falling due to atmospheric drag

To stay in orbit, the largest human-made object in space needs periodic rocket boosts to maintain its orbital speed and height. Its solar panels collect enough energy to power over 60 average US homes each year.

Commercializing space debris removal may follow the commercialization of launches

Active debris removal is likely to focus on larger derelict objects, which are more easily identified and yield better financial returns. One actively researched possibility involves using netting to capture derelict objects before towing them into a controlled descent into an ocean.

Visualize the impact of approximately 9,000 metric tons of satellites and space debris orbiting Earth—70% of which, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, do so in low Earth orbit.

The reusability of Falcon 9's first stage rocket has slashed launch costs

Unlike older rockets left to sink in the ocean, the first stage was designed to steer itself back for a controlled landing on a sea-based barge. Refurbishment of these components are half the cost of building new.

Overcoming industry skeptics, SpaceX provides low-cost, high-publicity spaceflights

From recovering and reusing rocket components to launching a mannequin and Tesla into orbit to the tune of David Bowie's "Starman," Elon Musk drove public interest and government contracts to his company as he transformed space launches into spectacles.

View a 3D visualization of how space shuttles were built and launched into orbit from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

A quick guide to everything SpaceX

SpaceX has single-handedly reignited commercial space exploration, with its reusable rockets, broadband satellite constellation, and plans to populate Mars. The company has gone from a mere idea in 2002 to the world's most well-known private space company. Learn the basics about this pivotal company with this quick guide from CNET.

The Columbia disaster exposed fatal flaws in NASA's shuttle program

On Feb. 1, 2003, Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart during reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard. The tragedy revealed long-ignored safety warnings, leading NASA to ground the shuttle fleet and overhaul its safety culture.

SpaceX successfully caught a rocket booster in mid-air

As part of the fifth test flight of its Starship system, the Super Heavy booster used high-speed navigation systems, grid fins, and Raptor engines to steer itself onto the mechanical arms of a tower called Mechazilla.

Lasers could be the most cost-effective tool for clearing dangerous space debris

A NASA study found that lasers from ground- and space-based systems could utilize the momentum of light to safely push smaller debris out of their orbits. These systems would need to be accompanied by amendments to international space law, which prevents any nation from touching debris from another country, among other strategies.

Scientists have proposed using lasers to push space trash into Earth's atmosphere

Such projects would allow most debris to burn up and no longer pose a risk to active satellites, telescopes, and astronauts on space stations. Enacting these plans would require substantial investments from private and governmental space agencies and overcoming international laws that prevent the removal of another country's space equipment.

Space archaeology studies space trash in the context of heritage and social meaning

Some orbiting objects, such as Elon Musk's Tesla, have symbolic or historical importance, despite being functionally worthless. The oldest human-made object in Earth's orbit is Vanguard 1, a grapefruit-sized satellite launched in 1958. The strangest may be an experimental, inflatable space station containing live cockroaches.

A primer on SpaceX's primary rockets and spacecraft

SpaceX has developed several lines of rockets, from its workhorse Falcon 9 to the visionary Super Heavy rocket of the company's Starship designed for massive payloads. Each iteration costs millions of dollars and came with scientific and economic challenges and several are no longer in development. Learn more about the company's roster of rockets and craft here.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon was the first crewed spacecraft piloted by touchscreen

In May 2020, NASA astronauts flying SpaceX's Crew Dragon to the International Space Station used touchscreen controls instead of traditional switches and dials, a significant shift for astronauts and how they pilot and interact with spacecraft. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Starbase is SpaceX's testing ground for their most powerful rocket, Starship

Located near the southernmost part of Texas, the complex includes rocket bays, test pads, the "Rocket Garden" where flown, cancelled, or retired spacecraft are kept. The outdoor seating area of the site's private restaurant is covered in Mk1 Starship prototype flaps.

Play a space junk collection game

Developed by Astroscale, a company with a contract from the UK to remove satellites from orbit safely, the game enables players to simulate the company's planned COSMIC mission and test their space debris-catching skills.

Watch a supercut of the various iterations of SpaceX's Starship rocket

The first version, called Starhopper, was named with the vision of developing rocket stages that could safely land after use, enabling reusability to cut costs. The endeavor was an enormous engineering challenge that required years of testing.

NASA has partnered with several private companies to promote commercial space stations

The retirement of the International Space Station in 2030 has led NASA to refocus its efforts on continuing microgravity research through private partnerships, including the support of multiple commercial space stations' design and development.

How SpaceX Made Space Affordable

SpaceX has cut launch costs by over 95%—from $54,000 per kilogram to around $2,000—reshaping how we access space.

In 2012, scientists purposely crashed a Boeing 727 to identify where the safest place to sit is on a plane in order to survive a belly-flop-style impact.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX after being unable to purchase affordable rockets abroad

Watch the Challenger disaster, which killed all seven astronauts aboard, unfold live.

In 2023, there were nearly as many payloads in LOE as trackable pieces of debris

In 2021, the European Space Agency estimated that more than 130 million space debris objects larger than 1 millimeter were in low Earth orbit, though only about 22,000 were being tracked. As of late 2025, the tracked total exceeds 49,000.

The Challenger disaster ended NASA's plan to fly ordinary Americans in space

The explosion of the Challenger halted NASA's civilian spaceflight ambitions for decades, including plans to send teachers, journalists, artists, and other nonastronauts into orbit—an effort aimed at building public support that quietly disappeared after the 1986 disaster.

How reusable rocket boosters work

Reusable rockets drastically reduce the costs of space travel, saving agencies and companies millions of dollars by preserving expensive, complex boosters and their engines. The advancement required engineers to develop systems that restarted a booster in mid-flight to slow it down before landing.

The Challenger disaster grounded the space shuttle fleet for nearly three years, exposed deep flaws in NASA's leadership, and prompted significant changes to the agency's safety oversight and decision-making culture.

The International Space Station is powered entirely by large solar arrays

Launched in 1998, its original solar panels were designed to withstand no more than 20 years of wear from temperature swings and micrometeoroid impacts in space. Replacement panels that roll out like carpets have since been installed.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

The Space Launch System: NASA's most powerful rocket ever

The Space Launch System is intended to be the most powerful rocket ever built by NASA. Possible missions include returning to the moon and perhaps even reaching Mars. This speculative and mostly silent video uses animation to explore the inner workings of the SLS, showing it launching and in space flight.

Explore the interior and exterior of the Atlantis and Endeavour space shuttles, including their flight decks, cargo bays, and other compartments.

In 1962, the US detonated a nuclear weapon in space, which produced an electromagnetic pulse that disabled three low Earth orbit satellites and damaged electrical equipment in Hawaii.