 The defunct Chinese space station Chang'an-1 made headlines on April 2nd when it came crashing back to Earth, burning up safely over the Pacific Ocean. While that large piece of space junk posed no threat for us on the surface, the ever-increasing amount of debris in orbit is becoming a massive problem. In the 60 years since the Soviets launched Sputnik, humanity has sent a lot of stuff into space. According to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, there are over 4,000 active and inactive satellites currently orbiting the Earth. But it's more than just the satellites that are up there. There are spent rocket stages, paneling, nuts and bolts, pieces of broken satellites, the list goes on. Just last year, an astronaut accidentally dropped a fabric debris shield about 1 meter in size during a spacewalk. Over the years this has added up, and NASA is now tracking over 500,000 pieces of space junk, the size of a marble or larger in the satellite environment. Since these pieces of space junk are traveling at speeds of 30,000 kilometers an hour or more, they can pose a serious operational concern for satellites and a safety risk for humans traveling to and living in space. With careful tracking of the debris, it is possible to maneuver spacecraft and the ISS out of harm's way. But that doesn't solve the problem. We need to remove the debris before it becomes a threat. Ironically, the same day Cheong-Gong-1 came down, a UK-led space mission called Remove Debris was launched to the ISS, and it will spend the next year and a half testing out space junk capture technologies. The Remove Debris satellite will release two small CubeSats and then attempt to capture it with a net and a harpoon. As access to space gets cheaper and easier, the space junk problem will likely get worse. Projects like Remove Debris are attempting to figure out the best way to keep our near-Earth environment clear so that humanity can continue to reach further out into space efficiently and safely.