> US rocketry has a tradition of making second stages dispose of themselves after their work is done. AFAIK no regulatory body enforces this - but launch providers usually do it anyway.
The FCC individually licenses every launch, and explicitly cares about collision risk. I'm not sure if there's a specific rule about when second stages must be deorbitted, but I'm pretty sure that if a launch provider intended to leave a second stage in a crowded orbit the FCC would cause trouble for them.
The FCC individually licenses every launch, and explicitly cares about collision risk. I'm not sure if there's a specific rule about when second stages must be deorbitted, but I'm pretty sure that if a launch provider intended to leave a second stage in a crowded orbit the FCC would cause trouble for them.