NASA releases new space sustainability strategy for future operations

To address the rapidly changing space environment and ensure its preservation for generations to come, NASA has released the first part of its integrated Space Sustainability Strategy, advancing the agency’s role as a global leader in this critical area. Low Earth orbit, the focus of part one of NASA’s Space Sustainability Strategy, is the most concentrated area for orbital debris.

“The release of this strategy marks real progress for NASA in space sustainability,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “Space travel is busy – and is only getting busier. If we want to ensure that crucial parts of space are preserved so that our children and grandchildren can continue to use them for the benefit of humanity, now is the time to take action. NASA ensures we align our resources to support sustainable activities for us and for everyone.”

For decades, NASA has served as a proactive leader in responsible and sustainable space operations. Entities across the agency develop best practices, analytical tools and technologies that are widely adopted by operators around the world. The new strategy seeks to integrate these efforts through an interagency approach, allowing NASA to focus its resources on the most pressing issues. To facilitate that integration, NASA will appoint a new director of space sustainability to coordinate activities across the agency.

Key aspects of our approach include providing global leadership on space sustainability, supporting equitable access to space, and ensuring that NASA’s missions and operations improve space sustainability.

Space environments are currently seeing the rapid emergence of commercial opportunities, many of which are being championed by NASA. These capabilities include increased satellite activity in low Earth orbit and plans for the use of satellite constellations, autonomous spacecraft and commercial space destinations. However, this increased activity has also brought challenges, such as a more crowded work environment with spacecraft and more debris. Understanding the risks and benefits associated with this growth is critical to the sustainability of space travel.

The Space Sustainability Strategy, developed under the guidance of a multi-agency advisory board, focuses on the progress NASA can make in measuring and assessing the sustainability of space in orbit, identifying cost-effective ways to achieve sustainability goals and encouraging the adoption of sustainable practices through technology and policy development and increasing efforts to share and receive information with the rest of the global space community.

NASA’s approach to space sustainability recognizes four operational domains: Earth, Earth orbit, the orbital region near and around the Moon known as cislunar space, and deep space, including other celestial bodies. Visit NASA online for more information about the Space Sustainability Strategy.

The first part of the strategy focuses on sustainability in orbit. NASA plans to produce additional volumes focusing on the other domains.