A year ago, the Outer Space Institute partnered with the International Civil Aviation Organization to look into the risk to commercial airliners from re-entering space debris. A piece of debris that is just 300 grams could fatally damage a Boeing 777 or an Airbus A350, so 300 people could die as a result of a collision with a piece of space debris re-entering through earth's atmosphere. It's an extremely low probability with a very high consequence.
How do you reduce the risk? One of the ways you reduce the risk is that you stop launch providers from abandoning rocket stages in orbit after they engage in a launch. You demand, you require, that they engage in what's called a controlled re-entry and put that rocket body into the South Pacific Ocean where it doesn't pose a risk to anyone. We've been advocating for a controlled re-entry regime. I know that the U.S. Space Force will now only contract for a launch if the company can assure them that the rocket stages will come back in a controlled way and go into the ocean.