--- title: "Startup Reveals “Space Armor” to Protect Astronauts From Elon Musk’s Orbital Trash" description: "Space armor is described as a series of lightweight tiles which protect craft and astronauts against \"all untrackable debris.\"" date: "2025-10-19" modified: "2025-10-19" authors: - name: "Joe Wilkins" job_title: "Correspondent" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jwilkins" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/space-armor-debris" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "Military" - "Off-World" - "Science & Energy" - "Space" - "Space Force" - "SpaceX" - "The Industrialists" --- # Startup Reveals “Space Armor” to Protect Astronauts From Elon Musk’s Orbital Trash ![Space armor is described as a series of lightweight tiles which protect craft and astronauts against "all untrackable debris."]() *Getty / Futurism* Never content to pollute only the Earth's surface, oceans, and atmosphere, billionaire tech moguls like Elon Musk are increasingly flooding our planet's orbit with debris from their for-profit space ventures. SpaceX, for example, already has some 8,600 active Starlink satellites doing laps around the planet, a number that needs constant reinforcements as craft either [tumble back down to Earth]() or join the [25,000 bits of identifiable junk]() already floating in orbit. Just this week, Musk's SpaceX launched [21 relay satellites]() into low Earth orbit on behalf of the US Space Force, after sending another [28 Starlink craft]() to join his ever-growing constellation. Though there are 25,000 tracked pieces of garbage floating through our skies, researchers estimate there may be as many as 170 million bits of smaller debris too small to track, but with the same capacity to [wipe out critical infrastructure](). In that increasingly crowded field, mid-space collisions are becoming more and more likely; as of late 2024, [*Business Insider* reported]() that space-traffic controllers were issuing 1,000 collision warnings per day. Now, one enterprising startup has developed a way to keep satellites and astronauts safe from all that garbage — at least until someone can [clean it up](). It's called "space armor," a material made using a composite-to-resin method by the American aerospace manufacturing company, Atomic-6. In a [factsheet](), Atomic-6 describes space armor is described as a series of lightweight tiles which protect craft and astronauts against "all untrackable debris" under 3mm in size, and 90 percent of the debris currently in low earth orbit. "Satellites and astronauts are constantly threatened by millions of untrackable, hypervelocity particles in orbit," the company [told *Space.com*](). "Like a loose pebble hitting your windshield on the highway, orbital debris can strike at any time to do significant damage to spacecraft." Though that was the only time the company brought up astronauts, Atomic-6 claims that space armor fixes a problem with [traditional satellite shielding](), which can break off into "secondary" rubble. While older-style space shields can absorb hits and protect craft in the short-term, they end up adding to the pile of junk zipping around our atmosphere, making them a poor long-term solution. "It has taken around 18 months to take Space Armor tiles from an idea to a final product," Atomic-6 CEO Trevor Smith told *Space.com*, noting that the tiles have withstood significant projectile testing on the ground. "We offer Space Armor in simple hex tiles, but we can technically make Space Armor into most any shape you want." In addition to dangerous debris, Atomic-6 [claims]() its space armor is a solution to the "growing threat" of "adversarial spacecraft," a reference to Russian and Chinese space programs. (To date, no kinetic attack on a rival spacecraft has ever been recorded, though spacefaring countries have [scuttled their own satellites]().) Smith said satellites equipped with space armor will begin launching into orbit as soon as 2026. Whether we'll ever start seeing astronauts decked out in sheets of space armor against Musk's [increasingly toxic presence]() in space? Only time will tell. **More on satellites:** *[Researchers Alarmed to Discover Satellites Broadcasting Unencrypted Military Secrets]()* ## Author At Futurism, I focus on the intersection of technology and power — examining the economics, history, and politics behind today’s dystopian headlines. As a writer, I’m interested in topics ranging from AI’s impact on labor to startups nobody asked for. My prior work includes bylines in Jacobin, Verso, and Blue Labyrinths. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Forbes, The Guardian, MIT Technology Review, Time, The Nation, Mother Jones, The Verge, and Wired. I grew up in Michigan, attending Central Michigan University as well as Ball State University, where I earned a master of music. I now live in Brooklyn with my girlfriend and our cat Ziti. On weekends, you can find me hunched over a cold pint arguing geopolitics with the other transplants. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()