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Paper short abstract

This paper explores the emerging intersections between space technology and environmental sustainability through the lens of ruination and repair. It approaches outer space as a site of ruination where the material afterlives of technological objects surface as a form of infrastructural decay.

Paper long abstract

As the accumulation of defunct satellites, spent rocket stages and fragmentation debris in the orbit expands, recent research has begun to question common remediation strategies. In particular, ablation upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere has been shown to produce hazardous compounds with as of yet unknown climatic consequences. Situating these findings within broader socio-environmental debates about climate futures, this paper examines shifting paradigms from disposal to repair. Drawing on ethnographic research with engineers, it considers material practices in orbit through the lens of terrestrial imaginaries of sustainability. By attending not just to the issue of debris removal, but to the cultural and ecological logics that produce orbital ruins, it argues that sustainable futures depend on infrastructures of maintenance and accountability, transforming orbital ruins into sites of ecological responsibility and collective stewardship.