About ClearOrbit

ClearOrbit exists because the space around Earth is filling up faster than anyone is cleaning it. We are a vision-stage company working to make orbital debris removal a normal, routine part of how humanity uses space.

What we are

We are building two things: a roadmap and a coalition.

The roadmap is the ClearOrbit Plan, a phased view of how removal can move from one-off demonstrations to a dependable service between now and 2035. The coalition is the set of operators, agencies, insurers, researchers and builders who will need to act together to make that happen.

What we are not

We want to be precise about this, because precision is the point of everything we publish. ClearOrbit has not flown hardware. We do not have customers or contracts. When we describe a future mission architecture or campaign, it is labelled ClearOrbit vision. When we describe other organizations' work, we label it Flown, Planned or Proposed, based on the public record.

Why awareness comes first

Debris removal will not happen at scale until enough people understand the problem clearly: policymakers who fund it, operators who design for it, and a public that expects it. The numbers are serious. ESA's 2026 report puts projected long-term risk in low Earth orbit at 50 times its acceptable first threshold and says active debris removal "must become part of the solution and soon" ESA Space Environment Report 2026. And the first attempts to capture and remove an existing large piece of debris are still ahead of us, planned for 2027 and 2028 Astroscale.

So our website is built to make a smart non-specialist understand the problem in minutes, and to earn the trust of aerospace readers by sourcing every number. We publish analysis, explainers, a timeline of major debris events, a library of the free data sources that anyone can use, and a public list of the most concerning derelict objects in orbit.

How we work

We cite primary sources wherever possible, show the date next to every figure, and say plainly when something is estimated, reported secondhand or uncertain. When sources disagree, we explain why rather than picking the most dramatic number.

Get involved

If you work on tracking, removal, servicing, insurance, policy or research, we would like to hear from you. If you spot an error on this site, we want to know that too. Orbit is a shared resource, and keeping it usable will take many hands.