MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax-AVN) - The U.S. and Russia may pool efforts to clean up the space debris mess in the foreseeable future. Both countries wish to solve this pressing problem, Active Academic Advisor of the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences Yuri Zaitsev said.
"Space debris concentration is close to critical. The threat of serious damage or even destruction of spacecraft in a collision with space junk grows year on year," the expert said.
He recalled the sudden halt of the Express-AM11 telecom satellite in late March 2006. Experts presumed that an external impact was the most probable cause.
Space observation stations are monitoring 16,530 objects in orbit, Zaitsev said. This is 131 more objects than three months ago. The numbers include 3,537 operating and 'expired' spacecraft (the indicator grew by 38 over the past three months), and 12, 993 rocket stages and their fragments (+93).
The by-country correlation of space debris has not changed, the expert said. Russia and CIS countries are the leaders, with 6,195 space debris objects (+87), among them 1,421 satellites (+7), and 4,774 rocket fragments and other junk (+80).
The United States ranks second, with 4,946 space objects. Their number has declined by 34. There are 1,123 satellites (-46) and 3,823 (+12) rocket stages and their fragments.
China ranks third, with 3,726 objects (-1), including 131 satellites (+5) and 3,595 pieces of other space junk (-6).
France takes fourth, with 492 objects (+3), including 55 satellites (+ 1) and 437 rocket fragments (+2).
Japan is the owner of 199 objects (+4), including 121 satellites (no change) and 78 fragments (+4).
India has 175 objects (+1), among them 48 satellites (+1) and 127 rocket fragments (no change).
The European Space Agency has 86 objects (-1), among them 41 satellite (-1) and 45 rocket fragments.
The rest own 711 space objects (+72), including 597 satellites (+71) and 114 rockets and their fragments (+1).
"The United States and Russia have to monitor movements and trajectories of space debris to keep their spacecraft safe, primarily the manned ones," the expert said.