New research on changes in the Earth's upper atmosphere suggests space debris could remain in orbit for longer than expected.

There's gridlock in orbit. More than 400 telecommunications satellites, plus an indeterminate number of retired, failed, and secret spacecraft, occupy a narrow band of space some 35,000 kilometers above Earth's equator. Now, researchers have found a way to alleviate the congestion: attaching solar sails to satellites that would propel them 10 to 30 kilometers north or south of the standard orbit.

Dealing with space debris presents a thorny political issue that must be addressed, according to an international foundation's brief to the United Nations. Yet tensions between countries about the best way to deal with space junk could make a solution difficult, experts say.

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have teamed up to take a hard look at the issues and challenges of de-cluttering space of human-made orbital debris. The result: A first-of-its-kind International Conference on Orbital Debris Removal

The chief of U.S. Strategic Command said recently that in regards to the orbital debris problem. America is "decades behind where we should be" and needs better tools to monitor what is up there and plan to avoid collisions with valuable satellites.

More than 20,000 pieces of space junk are orbiting planet Earth, putting our communications satellites in serious danger. At last, The Pentagon is taking it seriously, with the military finally tracking hundreds of satellites to watch for collisions. Is it too little, too late, or is the Pentagon onto something?

There are serious challenges ahead in mitigating space clutter now orbiting the Earth, problems that are exacerbated by the rise of small satellite launchings as well as using debris removal techniques that mimic anti-satellite systems.

The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) posted a notice last week soliciting ideas on how to shrink the growing debris cloud in Earth orbit.

To resolve the growing space debris problem, several experts have suggested levying a service fee on all spacecraft owners and using the collected funds as a 'bounty' to encourage operators to help safely deorbit or remove the largest pieces of space debris.

The US government is launching a competition, which will run until the end of 2010, to find the best way of tracking pieces of space junk down to the size of a pool ball.