Theoretically possible, highly technical. Also, really expensive and it might make some people mad.
Are there actual space junk claiming rules, like that of sea wrecks? I could see someone just going up and stealing/taking a classified satellite before it de-orbited.
There’s a great premise for a sci-fi novel - an earth where machinery falls from the sky on a perpetual basis, due to it being more advantageous to send new objects rather than repair/upgrade the existing ones. Groups of scavengers track these impacts to salvage pieces and build their own machinery.
There is an anime that is based around this concept where the future Earth is filled with too much space debris, so the protagonist joins in a new type of garbagemen (garbagewomen) to go on spacewalks to retrieve space debris. It's one of my favourite animes, since it doesn't deal with teenage drama like most anime.
Also it's relatively hard sci-fi for what you can find on TV - it tries to stay very close to the real physics, including orbital mechanics. I second the recommendation!
Tricky to make plausible, since most space debris is barely recognizable once it reaches the surface - metals would be deformed and have highly questionable metallurgical characteristics due to the extreme heat of reentry, essentially being of no value beyond raw material for reprocessing, and you'd have an easier time scavenging such things from the ruins of an industrial society - and a much easier time finding scrap in condition to be reused without so much rework.
I could see it as a subplot focused around high-value, highly durable items such as RTGs, though. A device that generates even a low level of electrical power without requiring fuel or favorable environmental conditions could easily have a broad range of uses in a post-apocalyptic story, and they are designed to survive reentry intact so as to avoid dispersing radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere or across the ground.
I almost added that the idea was free for the taking if someone wanted to write a sci fi story about it. I didn't add it because I felt it might come off too pretentious.
There's a lot of ways it can go, including a tech thriller, espionage, or even recovering something specifically needed in a post apocalyptic world. I'm sure there are more ideas.
It could even be hard science fiction, instead of just fantasy!
Alas, I've too many writing projects on my plate. Run with it, if you want. I'll even read it.
Are there actual space junk claiming rules, like that of sea wrecks? I could see someone just going up and stealing/taking a classified satellite before it de-orbited.