Salvaging is one of the many professions available to the players of EVE Online, through which a pilot can attempt to recover potentially valuable components from any salvagable wreck of destroyed ships or structures.
In order to salvage these components, a Salvager module or Salvaging Drones need to be used on the wreck. Each salvaging cycle of the module or drone has a chance to access the potential components, with skills and rigs increase this chance and permitting the salvaging higher quality wrecks. A failed access attempt has no negative effects on the wreck and unless the wreck is too complicated to salvage due to lack of skills, the salvaging efforts can just be repeated until the wreck has been successfully salvaged. It is worth noting that each wreck has a pre-determined amount of salvageable components. While pilot skills and better equipment make accessing the salvage easier and quicker, they do not increase the amounts of salvage gained.
The salvage obtained from wrecks is considered free for all. As such, a pilot may attempt to salvage a wreck without repercussions and the first one to successfully salvage the wreck will receive the salvaged components, if any. All other items contained within the wreck will be moved into a jettison container if the wreck is salvaged successfully. Looting such items from the wreck or the jettison container may, however, flag the pilot as a suspect, should they not have the rights to do so.