Russian space debris monitoring station to open in South Africa in 2022 - Roscosmos

MOSCOW. Nov 22 (Interfax) - A Russian optical-electronic station for space debris monitoring will open in South Africa in 2022, Roscosmos Executive Director, Strategic Planning Department Head Yury Makarov said.

The optical-electronic station of the Russian Automated System for the Prevention of Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Space has been deployed and is undergoing trials in South Africa, Makarov said in a presentation at the 9th Aerospace Science Week hosted by the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI).

"The work will be finalized in 2022," he said.

There are about 10,000 tonnes of manmade objects in near-Earth space, including 7,000 tonnes of space debris, Makarov said in his report.

The increased amount of space debris in circumterrestrial orbits affects the operation of the International Space Station (ISS), he said.

"As for the International Space Station, [...] few people know that, for instance, the station performed numerous evasion maneuvers and we repeatedly changed its orbit last year. Whenever that can't be done for temporal reasons, crewmembers put on spacesuits, go to the landing capsule and wait there until they can return to their seats," Makarov said.

For now, the Russian Automated System for the Prevention of Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Space operates several stations in Russia, including those near Kislovodsk, Ussuriysk and Abrau-Durso in the Krasnodar Territory. There are also monitoring stations in Armenia and Brazil. Plans to deploy stations in Chile, Mexico and South Africa in 2019-2020 were reported earlier.

According to the information published on the public procurement website on January 26, Roscosmos was eyeing Cuba, Spitsbergen and the Bellingshausen station in Antarctica as the locations of monitoring stations for the system.

Roscosmos said on August 4, 2021, that the overall weight of space debris in orbit exceeds 7,000 tonnes. According to the space corporation, the Russian Automated System for the Prevention of Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Space receives daily from three to ten messages about the approach of potentially dangerous objects to Russian spacecraft.