DARPA Telescope to Track Space Junk From Australia

US Military Telescope to Track Space Junk Down Under

TechNewsDaily Staff

Date: 15 November 2012 Time: 04:51 PM ET

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DARPA's Space Surveillance Telescope may head to Australia to search the skies for space junk that threatens U.S. military satellites. CREDIT: DARPA View full size image

A U.S. telescope will hunt for space junk in the skies above Australia under a new defense agreement. The Space Surveillance Telescope is capable of scanning an area of space the size of the United States in seconds as it searches for small space debris that may threaten military satellites in orbit.

"We value the partnership with Australia that allows us to widen our space situational awareness and share some of our revolutionary technology advances in space surveillance," said Travis Blake, program manager for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which built the telescope. "This technology development effort could benefit both nations as we catalogue and detect entire sets of currently uncharted objects that are in geosynchronous orbit above Australia."

More - Link >>> http://www.space.com/18506-military-telescope-space-junk.html

Sources: TechNewsDaily.com , Space.com .

Related Blog Post --

DARPA Asks Amateur Astronomers to Track Space Junk (2012 Nov. 15):

Link >>> http://spacewatchtower.blogspot.com/2012/11/darpa-asks-amateur-astronomers-to-track.html 

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