Russia to spend 2 Bln to clean up space.

Russia's Rocket and Space Corporation Energia announced Tuesday that it will build a special orbital pod designed for sweeping-up the near-Earth space from satellite debris.

The system was estimated to cost about 60 billion rubles (1.9 billion U.S. dollars).

Every year, the near-Earth space becomes more and more densely populated with used satellites and their debris, said the company.

"The corporation promised to clean up the space in ten years by collecting about 600 defunct satellites on the same geosynchronous orbit and sinking them into the ocean subsequently," said Victor Sinyavsky from the company as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

He said the cleaning satellite would work on nuclear power and be capable to work up to 15 years.

Energia said that the company would complete the cleaning satellite work-out and assembly by 2020 and test the device no later than in 2023.

Sinyavsky said that Energia has also been drafting a space interceptor designed to destroy dangerous space objects heading toward the Earth.


[link to www.spacedaily.com]