The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News is now available. See the latest updates as of March 2023. 

NASA engineered the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to withstand continual bombardment from dust-sized particles moving at extreme velocities, known as micrometeoroid strikes. To date, JWST is averaging one to two strikes a month.

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. This March 2022 issue includes the articles "The Intentional Destruction of Cosmos 1408," "Orbital Debris Engineering Model (ORDEM) 3.2 Release" and "Debris Assessment Software (DAS) 3.2.1 Release." Fragments from the Russian Anti-Satellite test in November 2021 were added to the new ORDEM and DAS. The timely release of the two models will help satellite operators better assess risks from Orbital Debris for the safe operations of their missions.

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. This December 2021 issue includes the articles "Accidental Collision of YunHai 1-02," "Updated NASA Technical Standard for Limiting Orbital Debris" and "Experimental Hypervelocity Impacts of Non-Spherical Projectiles on Whipple Shields." 

The latest issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. See the latest updates as of February 2021. 

The April 2020 issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News is now available. This issue includes the articles, "Three Recent Breakup Events," "The New NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model 3.1," and "Composite Material Char Rate and Strength Retention Study at University of Texas at Austin," among other pieces.

Learn the latest details on the release of the Orbital Debris Engineering Model, ORDEM 3.1, in this article from Orbital Debris Quarterly News, Volume 24, Issue 1, February 2020.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) recently released “A Meteoroid Handbook for Aerospace Engineers and Managers” (NASA/TM-2019-220142) to help educate programs across the agency about the environments their spacecraft could encounter during their missions and, in turn, help programs protect their spacecraft from potentially damaging threats.

The four guiding principles in the U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices, approved in 2001, are to limit the generation of mission-related debris, accidental explosions and collisions, and to conduct postmission disposal. Both the 2006 and 2010 U.S. National Space Policies directed U.S. government departments and agencies to implement the standard practices to limit the generation of new debris by their space missions. NPR 8715.6, NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris and Evaluating the Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Environments and NASA-STD-8719.14, Process for Limiting Orbital Debris represent the agency’s implementation of the standard practices.