Over 100 tons of space junk fell on Earth in 2014 (NASA)

More than 600 non-operating satellites, used-up stages of rockets and other pieces of space vehicles burnt last year reentering the atmosphere.

According to the American weekly newspaper Space News, the data was reported by NASA to the UN Committee on the peaceful uses of outer space, where the space junk disposition was discussed. 

Specialists estimate that last year's space junk fall was more intense than usual because of high solar activity which raised the atmosphere boundary and made a part of space junk from low orbits approach the Earth’s surface.

According to experts the overall weight of the space junk that entered atmosphere is over 100 tons. It is impossible to find out how many pieces have reached the earth having crossed the dense atmosphere, but it is known that no one suffered from the phenomenon.

According to NASA experts, after the space junk fall the space has become cleaner. They claim that there are fewer 10-cm objects classified as space junk. Meanwhile, the weight of used-up satellites and pieces of orbital platforms has increased from 5 to 6.5 thousand tons over the last 10 years.

Specialists offer different ways of space junk disposition, even such exotic ones as special orbital “vacuum cleaners”. At the same time almost everybody agrees that it is most important for all countries to abide by the rules of the spacecraft usage.
  http://tass.ru/en/non-political/778607
19/2/15
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Russia first among space junk producers (report)

Russia is occupying a confident first place as the producer of space rubbish orbiting the Earth, says a report published by the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering, a subsidiary of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.

Of the 15,900 or so orbital objects classified as space junk, about 6.300 objects were left over by Russia, it says.
All in all, a total of 17,000 manmade objects were orbiting the Earth on October 31, 2014, experts of the institute's ballistic center say. Only 1,300 objects in that number are active-duty space probes.

The rest of objects - carrier rockets, non-operating satellites and debris of various other vehicles - belong to the category of space junk.

• “Among the active-duty probes, the US grouping consisting of 427 items is the biggest,” the report says. “Russia has 129 probes and China has 123.”

The US has left over 4,570 objects in orbit and China has left about 3,660 objects. http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/760610
19/11/14
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• Un satellite soviétique est descendu de son orbite ...

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Scientists develop new technique of orbiter defense from space debris

A new computer model that will help the scientists to increase orbiter defense from clashing with space junk has been developed in Ireland. The researchers from the country’s oldest university Trinity College reported that “new mathematical methods will help predict emergencies in terrestrial space”. 

According to one of the project initiators, Computer Science School Professor of Statistics, Simon Wilson, due to development in IT sphere they also managed to create new tools that will calculate more accurately impact points of satellite parts that didn’t burn in dense atmosphere.
“Particularly, we are now able to calculate with higher probability whether objects in dense atmosphere will burn or not,” he pointed out. Other details will be kept secret until researchers get international patent. It is known that European Space Agency is interested in the invention.

The main challenge that experts from Trinity College face is not to let the most pessimistic scenario of the Hollywood blockbuster “Gravity”, which came out in 2013, materialize. The plot of the movie describes how all crew members of shuttle “Columbia” die during the routine mission in space exactly because of the collision of spaceship with extraneous objects.

Experts estimate that total weight of space junk exceeds 100,000 tons nowadays.
This entails satellite fragments, rocket stages, inactive spacecrafts and its pieces. All this debris gradually moves on lower orbits, posing a danger for manned missions.
en.itar-tass.com
20/10/14
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Russian scientists develop system for monitoring space junk

Scientists from St. Petersburg Polytechnic University have developed a monitor system to follow space junk.

The system is a set of monitoring meters intended for a spaceship to ensure its safety if established on board, Rector of the St. Petersburg university Andrei Rudskoi told TASS on Thursday.

The space litter monitoring project aroused interest at the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos). Chief of the Roscosmos agency Oleg Ostapenko has promised support to St. Petersburg Polytechnic University to enable it to test the litter monitoring meters on the orbit.

Space litter poses a threat to the population of the Earth, manned orbital stations, spaceships and orbital satellites. Meters on board the spaceship might warn a space crew about space litter on the spaceship's trajectory, and a space crew might either change route or destroy the space litter before encounter.
http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/752499
2/10/14
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