Russia to spend $2 bn to clean space around Earth

MOSCOW - Russia will build a special orbital pod worth $2 billion that would sweep up satellite debris from space around the Earth.

Every year, the space near Earth becomes more and more densely populated with used satellites and their debris, and the new system - estimated to cost about 60 billion rubles ($1.9 billion) - would help clean it up, Xinhua reported citing Russia’s Rocket and Space Corporation, also known as Energia.

“The corporation promises to clean up the space in 10 years by collecting about 600 defunct satellites on the same geosynchronous orbit and sinking them into the oceans subsequently,” Victor Sinyavsky from the company was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The cleaning satellite would work on nuclear power and would be capable to work up to 15 years, he said.

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

Sinyavsky said Energia was also in the process of designing a space interceptor that would to destroy dangerous space objects heading towards the Earth.