Save Our Sky (Reclaiming Outer Space from Greed and Empire)

From MacArthur Genius Grant Winner and US Air Force veteran Moriba Jah, an urgent call-to-action to reject unchecked space development and exploitation as billionaires and geopolitical saber rattlers threaten to ruin a cherished and vital resource for us all.

Outer space is being treated as an infinite dumping ground and an open arena for profit and power. It is neither. Moriba Jah cracks open the crisis at hand: 90% of all man-made objects in space right now are junk, aging and poorly-monitored objects are falling from the sky at an ever-accelerating rate, and world powers are militarizing orbit at alarming speed. Meanwhile, tech bros like Elon Musk are recklessly commercializing space by launching satellites with little oversight and offloading critical human needs to a growing web of machines that are at increasing risk of colliding with one another. The systems that support modern life—communications, navigation, finance, weather forecasting, disaster response—now depend on infrastructure operating inside this stressed environment.

Jah writes from direct experience inside the space enterprise. He guarded nuclear missile systems during the Cold War’s closing years, lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the START era, worked on spacecraft missions, tracked satellites for the US military, and developed algorithms used to analyze orbital objects. His warning grows out of operational duty and scientific practice, not commentary from a distance.

In Save Our Sky, Jah exposes the accelerating risks created by debris growth, uncontrolled reentries, mega-constellation congestion, and geopolitical competition in orbit. He shows how extractive economic thinking and strategic rivalry have moved upward into space, carrying familiar patterns of exploitation with them. What happens in orbit does not stay in orbit. The consequences return to Earth.

Blending technical insight, personal narrative, and policy analysis, Jah introduces a framework he calls Space Environmentalism—treating Earth and orbit as one connected ecosystem that requires stewardship, accountability, and repair. He highlights emerging international efforts that point toward more responsible space practice and lays out concrete policy and governance measures that can still change the trajectory.