Brussels, 03/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament has given its approval for strengthened cooperation between member states to monitor space debris in the Earth's orbit and prevent possible collisions with satellites.
On Wednesday 2 April, the European Parliament adopted a regulatory framework for creating an independent European capability for “space surveillance and tracking” (SST), by bringing together existing national programmes. €70 million is expected to be allocated to this tracking system, by combining resources from the Internal Security Fund and the Galileo, Copernicus and “Horizon 2020” programmes. MEPs adopted the report by Amelia Andersdotter (Greens/EFA, Sweden) by 602 votes for and 17 against, with 10 abstentions.
Thousands of satellites are orbiting around the Earth and a lot of them are old or now out of use. The debris from them can threaten the EU's satellite infrastructure, such as the geo-navigational Galileo and Copernicus observation satellites. There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of space junk in space that sometimes measure no more than just a few centimetres but they can cause significant damage. European space surveillance and tracking of these objects should help to provide warnings of possible dangers and prevent collisions between space flight vehicles and space debris.
Improved surveillance of orbiting spacecraft could help save €210 million a year, according to Antonio Tajani, the European Commissioner for Industry. He welcomed the EP's approval of this European capability that could help, “remove a serious risk to the delivery of economic gains expected from the EU's space programmes”. The Council will in turn give its approval to the initiative for this European space surveillance and tracking system. (MD)