Tap any paragraph to write a margin note. Your notes collect in the Desk below the text and file under cases with @. The side-by-side margin rail opens on a larger screen.

Code · U.S. Code · Title 42 - THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE · CHAPTER 159— SPACE EXPLORATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND SCIENCE · SUBCHAPTER XI— OTHER MATTERS · § 18441

§ 18441. National and international orbital debris mitigation

330 words·~2 min read·/usc/title-42/section-18441

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

(a)Findings 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)International discussion
(1)In general 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)Interagency effort 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.
(Pub. L. 111–267, title XII, § 1202, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2841.)
Connections48 cite this
★   the supreme law of the land   ★
Don't Tread on Me
E Pluribus Unum — out of many, one

"If you don't know your rights, you don't have any."

Marginalia · a citizen's law index
A research desk, not legal advice. Always read the cited source before relying on a summary.
Questions or an issue? support@self-law.org
disclaimerMarginalia is a research index, not a law firm. Nothing on this site is legal, tax, or financial advice and no attorney–client relationship is formed by using it. Statutes, regulations, and case law change; summaries, search results, AI output, and member posts may be incomplete, out of date, or wrong. Any interpretation drawn from material on this site should be validated by a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before you act on it.