China plans to set up a monitoring and research program to minimize space debris from its own launchers and satellites, China Space News reports in the Feb. 28 edition.
The proposed plan to increase China’s capabilities to observe, avoid and reduce space debris received approval from specialists with the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND) on Feb. 22.
The quantitiy of debris in space has been causing concern to agencies involved with exploring space and companies depending on satellites installed there. But now space agencies have demonstrated the capability of a new system which tracks debris and is intended to prevent collisions. The system detected a near-collision situation in which 3.8 tons of rocket booster waste left over from a Chinese launch threatened the 8 ton European Space Agency (ESA) Envisat Earth remote-sensing spacecraft.
