Europe Launches Satellite to Start Space Junk Clean-Up Mission

European engineers launched a satellite to the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday to track space junk and take it back to the earth, kicking off the Remove Debris project.

‘Catastrophic avalanche of collisions’: Space junk can destroy satellites, scientists say

At least 170 million pieces of rapidly-moving space junk are now circulating in Earth’s orbit and this debris may even lead to a “catastrophic avalanche of collisions” and destroy all working satellites and even threaten economies, scientists said.

Rosetta Space Probe Studying 67P Comet Starts Final Manoeuvre

The European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Rosetta space probe has completed its mission and the final collision manoeuvre has been initiated, the ESA announced.

Mayisin Geo News (May 2015 -A)

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Environ 500 astéroïdes menacent potentiellement la Terre, mais des solutions, relevant pour le commun des mortels de la science-fiction, sont envisagées par les experts de l'Agence spatiale européenne (ESA), réunis cette semaine à Frascati, près de Rome.....Cinq cents astéroïdes menacent potentiellement la Terre

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(April 2015 - Β) 

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(April 2015 - A) 

Pentagon plans multi-billion dollar project to combat space junk

Later this month the US Pentagon plans to award a massive contract to one of the two most influential American contractors for a project that, if all goes according to plan, will be able to identify space debris before it becomes a threat to the Earth.
Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon Co. are competing for the $6 billion contract to design and construct Space Fence, a radar system that will eventually be able to track large bodies of space matter. The plan is being put into place so that the government can not only better predict the bodies that may come into contact with Earth (such as the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, for instance) but also to better protect satellites that could be destroyed while in orbit.

Japan's Launching A Giant Net Into Orbit To Scoop Up Space Junk (video fr)

Something must be done to deal with the estimated 100 million bits of man-made space junk circling the planet, and Japan is taking the lead. But can we do? Shoot it with a laser? Invent Wall-E-like robots to collect it? Nah… let’s just blast a big net into space.


Next month, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) will do just that. Having teamed up with a company that manufactures fishing equipment, Jaxa developed a wire net nearly 300 metres long but just a foot wide that will be launched into orbit. Once it’s unravelled, the net will generate a magnetic field that will theoretically attract nearby space debris.

Comment faire le ménage dans l'espace ?

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Depuis le début de la conquête spatiale dans les années 60, le nombre de débris présents dans l'espace s'est accumulé de manière quasi-exponentielle.
Aujourd'hui une couverture de poubelle high-tech entoure la terre.
Environ deux tiers de ces objets viennent de l'éclatement d'autres débris spatiaux : que ce soient des explosions ou des collisions. Comme celle de 2009 entre les satellites Iridium et Cosmos à près de 800 kilomètres au-dessus de la Sibérie.
La taille des débris varie de quelques millimètres à la taille d'un bus, n'importe lequel d'entre eux peut abimer un vaisseau estime le chef du bureau des débris spatiaux de l'agence spatiale européenne.