How the law aims to protect Earth from ‘space junk’ and asteroids

Experts in an emerging discipline have answers for you about the rules that govern what happens in orbit—and how we might respond to an incoming asteroid.

While life on Earth has been dramatic enough lately, there’s also been an unusual amount of news from space in the early months of 2025. So far, debris from SpaceX and Blue Origin rockets has landed in locations including the Bahamas, Florida, Poland, and Turks and Caicos and caused flight delays at airports in Florida.

On February 18, NASA estimated that asteroid 2024 YR4 had a 3.1% chance of hitting Earth in 2032—the highest probability of impact ever recorded by the agency—although they later reduced that estimate to 0.004%.

For decades, asteroids, rockets, satellites, and associated space junk have all posed risks to our planet’s infrastructure and people.

In response, space law has grown into what we know today, starting in the mid-20th century by the United Nations. Shaped by the international resolutions, treaties, and organizations that have been created to regulate these threats, the field has grown in relevance and importance as more countries and private entities pursue activities in space.

Here, Benedict Kingsbury, a professor of law, and Katrina M. Wyman, a professor of property law—co-teachers of the NYU School of Law course “Space and Planetary Law & Governance” and experts in international and environmental law—dig into the recent headlines, the still-developing discipline, and how it could shape Earth’s future:

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