It requires commercial space operators to choose from among five options to dispose of the upper stages of launch vehicles, including

• conducting a controlled re-entry
• moving the upper stage to a ‘graveyard orbit’ that lies away from common operational orbits
• sending the upper stage on an Earth escape orbit
• retrieving the upper stage within five years
• performing an uncontrolled atmospheric disposal.

The last option would give firms 25 years for the upper stage to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Given that the entire mission lifetime of upper stages and their components is quite short, and spent upper stages pose a significant risk of debris propagation the longer they are in orbit, it may be appropriate to have a shorter disposal timeline of five years or another time period less than 25 years,” the proposed rule states.                 

The number of smaller pieces of space debris currently in orbit is thought to number more than 100 million. Due...