In September 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed a new rule for the disposal of upper stages after commercial launches. In short, for most launches to LEO and GTO, operators will either be required to conduct controlled reentries or move their stage to a higher disposal orbit. 

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Ewan Wright is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia, where he is writing a thesis on uncontrolled reentries, and a Junior Fellow of the Outer Space Institute.