The cost of failure is rather high. In 2007, China used a missile to destroy one of their satellites: "This event was the largest recorded creation of space d

The cost of failure is rather high. In 2007, China used a missile to destroy one of their satellites: "This event was the largest recorded creation of space debris in history with more than 2,000 pieces of trackable size (golf ball size and larger) officially cataloged in the immediate aftermath, and an estimated 150,000 debris particles.[24][25] As of October 2016, a total of 3,438 pieces of debris had been detected, with 571 decayed and 2,867 still in orbit nine years after the incident." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_missile_test https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Chinese_anti-satellite_mi... That being said, they are researching the use of lasers to clean up space debris: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0030402617312068 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003040261...