There are well over 100,000 objects in Earth orbit, the vast majority being non-functioning junk in the form of satellites and debris from rocket launches. With no atmospheric barrier to shield the moon's surface, NASA is now taking steps to prevent a similar accumulation of debris in lunar orbit.

New research indicates that using network analysis to identify and remove key pieces of space debris (i.e. the ones that could cause the most damage by having the greatest number of links to other pieces) could significantly improve prospects for cleaning up space debris.

The October shuttle mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope faces an increased risk of being struck by pieces of shattered satellites and rockets whipping around the Earth, according to NASA.

For the first time in five years, the international space station changed course on Wednesday to avoid a piece of space junk — in this case, satellite debris that the Russians have insisted wasn't there.

A Canadian satellite, the Near Earth Object Surveillance Satellite, is designed specifically as an early warning system to pinpoint asteroids on a collision course with Earth. It will also detect space junk in the path of other orbiting satellites to prevent crashes that could shut down telecommunications - television, telephone, GPS and banking systems - around the globe.

Space is littered with millions of bits of orbiting garbage leftover from missions. The flying flotsam can delay launches and could potentially smash into spacecraft. Now some creative ideas are emerging for how to sweep up the junk.

Giant chunks of manmade space junk - like the dead satellite that the U.S. government shot down - regularly fall to Earth. Yet no one has ever been reported hurt by them.

Chunks of debris weighing two tons or more from satellites and rocket parts fall uncontrolled every three weeks or so, according to an analysis by a Harvard University astronomer who tracks satellites and space debris.

The authors argue that on the 50th anniversary of the Space Age, the international community should take steps to regulate military competition and space debris to "protect our future in space as well as security on Earth."

Human security and technologies from cell phones to weather forecasts are more at risk than ever from anti-satellite weapons and space junk, said a new research report on space security.

[ Link to Full Report (PDF) ]

The Chinese government is implementing a wide series of measures to reduce the amount of debris left in orbit by Chinese rockets and satellites, and to develop a space-surveillance tool to determine what is in orbit, Chinese space-debris experts said.