On Tuesday, a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 readying for takeoff at Boston Logan International Airport sprang a leak from its main engine, spilling about 40 gallons of fuel onto the runway and causing safety workers to tow it back to the gate.
NASA's slice of the pie includes a plan that would improve detection of near-Earth asteroids, send a solar-powered robot ship (like the NASA concept above) to capture one of the space rocks and tow it back to a stable orbit near Earth, where researchers could study it up close.
Astrium's plan to tackle defunct satellites is to use an unmanned chase spacecraft to get in range, fire a barbed harpoon into the body of the rogue hardware and then use a smaller propulsion unit attached to a tether to tow it back towards the atmosphere where it will burn up safely on re-entry.