Space debris constitutes a significant hazard to low earth orbit satellites and particularly to manned spacecraft. A quite small velocity decrease from vaporization impulses is enough to lower the perigee of the debris sufficiently for atmospheric drag to de‐orbit the debris. A short pulse (picosecond) laser version of the Orion concept can accomplish this task in several years of operation. The “Mercury” short pulse Yb:S‐FAP laser being developed at LLNL for laser fusion is appropriate for this task. © 2004 American Institute of Physics