The Committee to Nuke Elysium

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is planning to launch a space system for countering asteroids, comets and space junk by 2025, according to the draft of the 2016-2025 federal space program sent by the agency to the government for approval.

The document proposes to create “means of ensuring the delivery and interference with objects dangerously approaching the Earth, with the aim to change their orbits to prevent collision with the planet.”

The system should also include space ‘cleaners’ designed to remove from orbit large “space junk” such as spacecraft debris and old satellites.

The orbital segment will be an addition to the ground component of a system that will control and test anti-asteroid and anti-space junk technologies, it said.

Roscosmos has asked for nearly 23 billion rubles for the construction of the orbital and ground components of the system.

The project will build upon the experience gained under other programs as part of efforts to boost safe functioning of spacecraft and ground space infrastructure. The anti-asteroid project will be developed around the automatic space emergency prevention system in the near-earth outer space, operating at the Mission Control Center (in Korolyov, Moscow region).