---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 18441"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "18441"
heading: "National and international orbital debris mitigation"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/18441"
units:
  - "Chapter 159 — Space Exploration, Technology, and Science"
  - "Subchapter XI — Other Matters"
---

# §18441. National and international orbital debris mitigation

- (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](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) Space Debris Coordination Committee provide a consensus understanding of 10 national space [agencies](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) (including [NASA](/usc/42/18302.md?p=6)) plus the European Space [Agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) on the necessity of mitigating the creation of space debris and measures for doing so. [NASA](/usc/42/18302.md?p=6)’s participation on the Committee should be robust, and [NASA](/usc/42/18302.md?p=6) should urge other space-relevant Federal [agencies](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) (including the Departments of State, Defense, and Commerce) to work to ensure that their counterpart [agencies](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) 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](/usc/42/18302.md?p=1) shall, in consultation with such other departments and [agencies](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) of the Federal Government as the [Administrator](/usc/42/18302.md?p=1) considers appropriate, continue and strengthen discussions with the representatives of other space-faring countries, within the Inter-[Agency](/usc/42/8262.md?p=1) 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](/usc/42/11851.md?p=5) of [OSTP](/usc/42/18302.md?p=9), in coordination with the [Director](/usc/42/11851.md?p=5) 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.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 111–267, title XII, § 1202, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2841.)