Press Release: Avoiding costly space crashes: European Parliament approves space surveillance and tracking programme

The growing number of satellites and amounts of debris in the space surrounding our planet makes the risk of collision a serious threat to the sustainable operation of EU space infrastructure. On 2 April 2014, the European Commission welcomed the European Parliament vote in favour of a proposal to create a European Space Surveillance and tracking (SST) Framework.

The purpose of the service is to provide alerts to help reduce the risk of collisions between spacecraft, between spacecraft and space debris, and collisions due to the uncontrolled re-entry of non-operational spacecraft or large debris. The Commission's proposal aims to encourage Member States with relevant space surveillance abilities to work together and pool their means in order to provide the EU with space surveillance and tracking services.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: Keeping the EU's space industry competitive and avoiding satellite collisions http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-keeping-the-eus-space-industry-competitive-and-avoiding-satellite-collisions/

European Parliament: Press Release, 02.04.14: From Sputnik to Gravity: the dangers of space junk and how to deal with it http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20140401STO41558/

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