In an era of increasing global launch rates, heightened by the buckshot approach to tossing mega-satellite constellations into Earth orbit, there’s also escalating anxiety about the ramifications from reentry of defunct space hardware.

What’s lacking in the United States is a single coordinated effort to understand and manage reentry — one that is consistently funded and engages a variety of disciplines — say researchers and experts at The Aerospace Corporation who are studying the impacts and other aspects of reentry. There is also no national agreement, they argue, about who should fund reentry studies; government space interests and roles are spread out over multiple federal agencies.

Most reentries of space hardware are uncontrolled. When and where above Earth they auger in is a happenstance situation, and the inherent challenges of making targeted observations make addressing reentry particularly difficult.