MOSCOW. April 18 (Interfax-AVN) - The United States and Russia have counted over 16,000 artificial objects, among them operating and spent satellites, booster units and rocket stages and spacecraft pieces, in the near-Earth orbit.
As of April 1, 2014, the U.S. Strategic Command had catalogued 16,683 objects, among them 3,784 operating or defunct satellites and 12,899 rocket stages and spacecraft fragments.
According to the catalogue, Russia and the CIS are responsible for 6,170 pieces of space debris, the United States for 5,042, China for 3,746, France for 503, Japan for 211, India for 176, the European Space Agency for 94, and other countries for 741.
Meanwhile, the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash) reported that Russian space control stations had counted 16,901 objects in orbit as of February 28, among them 1,295 operating satellites and 15,606 pieces of space debris, including 2,575 defunct satellites, 1,873 booster units and rocket stages and 11,158 spacecraft fragments.
"The biggest number of space debris fragments belongs to such countries as Russia (6,084), the United States (4,544) and China (3,644)," TsNIIMash said in a report.