Swiss look to tidy up space junk

Swiss scientists say they're developing a satellite to help tidy up debris floating in Earth's orbit. The CleanSpace One project is the first installment of a series of satellites designed to clean up space debris, the Swiss Space Center at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne said Thursday. At least 16,000 objects, including abandoned satellites, spent rocket stages, bits of broken spacecraft and fragments from collisions are crowding Earth's orbit, creating a growing risk for spacecraft. "It has become essential to be aware of the existence of this debris and the risks that are run by its proliferation," astronaut Claude Nicollier said on the school's Web site. The symbolic target for the initial CleanSpace One launch will be either Switzerland's first orbiting object, the Swisscube picosatellite, which was put in orbit in 2009, or its cousin TIsat, launched in July 2010. CleanSpace One is expected to cost about $21 million to develop and launch, officials said. The first rendezvous could take place in three to five years. Volker Gass, director of the Swiss Space Center, says there is a market for "a whole family of ready-made systems, designed as sustainably as possible, that are able to de-orbit several different kinds of satellites." "Space agencies are increasingly finding it necessary to take into consideration and prepare for the elimination of the stuff they're sending into space. We want to be the pioneers in this area," Gass said in a release.