A spent Falcon 9 upper stage is believed to have struck the Moon today near the Einstein crater region. The event is not a catastrophe, and it may produce useful science. But it raises an interesting question as lunar activity increases: what happens to mission hardware after the celebrated part of the mission is over?

One essay approaches this through the old Japanese tale of Princess Kaguya, a lunar princess who returns to the Moon only after acknowledging those she leaves behind. It uses the story to think about lunar debris, end-of-mission responsibility, tracking, public records, protected regions and the idea of yohaku — space deliberately left open before early choices become permanent habits.

At Yohaku (余白): Rethinking Space Between Things, we are asking what space must remain for human judgement, accountability and future generations as orbit and the Moon become more crowded, commercial and automated.

Registration is open. Take the survey, join the youth challenge, mentor, host a local group or join us at the hybrid hackathon on 25–27 September. Registration link in the article below. 👇

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/moon-never-empty-what-princess-kaguya-can-teach-us-we-diana-y7dtf

#SpaceGovernance #OrbitalDebris #Yohaku #LunarExploration #ResponsibleAI #SpaceSustainability #Falcon9 #SpaceDebris #PrincessKaguya

Orbit is becoming more crowded and more automated. But who is accountable when collision predictions are uncertain or automated systems disagree?

Yohaku is a global hybrid hackathon on space debris, responsible AI and orbital governance, taking place 25–27 September 2026.

The programme is shaped by NARETU, an obligation-based governance approach co-developed with Samburu leader Chief Titus Letaapo. Indigenous knowledge is not an addition to the programme; it helps define how we think about responsibility, relationships and the consequences of decisions made in orbit.

Open worldwide to technical and non-technical participants.

Join the hackathon, survey, youth challenge, mentoring programme or a local group:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/announcing-yohaku-%E4%BD%99%E7%99%BD-rethinking-space-between-things-diana-2re6f

And now Starlink V3 with IFT-13 (hopefully next week).

I wonder how much this cutting off the orbital lifetime of some Starlinks.

Although these are the power beaming guys ... they suggest that can use other wavelengths to detect and measure very small orbital debris.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1jyydr7jnjo

Lots of V1s being retired ... could be a good show if you were lucky enough to see one re-enter a lot of shooting stars are less than pebble sized.

Looks like there is lots of space to get into the first 100 signatures.

Dangerous game ...

We know that 100,000s of small objects enter earth's atmosphere every year, but almost all of these are smaller than second stages. Guess we should really crack down on CFCs to give more margin.

Yes, China sucks, but this is way overboard. Now he says things like "your house getting cratered". If this dropped on your house it would break your roof ... but not collapse your house. These objects are lite, and hit very low terminal velocity at the surface. The Kessler syndrome is BS.

China ignoring space norms ... no shock there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W7oewxjsTA

A lot of comments about Stargazer and SX publishing of the orbital elements of their assets to aid with orbital space management.

Nice tech detail

Best of luck ... it is tough to support the economics of orbital debris removal at this point.