NASA Finds Solution To Space Station Trash: Airlock It!

For years, NASA has toiled under the yoke of an environmental policy mandating that space junk not be flushed into the stellar void. No more! New rules are taking effect that will relax this restriction, giving orbiting scientists a chance to recover much-needed room aboard the International Space Station, which is stuffed to the brim with trash in the absense of regular Shuttle service flights.

"We are only going to be doing it in rare cases under very strict conditions, and doing it because of the safety of the crew and the station," said Nicholas Johnson, the chief scientist for Nasa's orbital debris programme."

NASA will have to track items thus placed in the cool currents of space, until they burn up in reentry. With 13,000 objects already under observation, however, they've had plenty of practice.

Nasa finds ways to get rid of space junk [Gulf News]