New Telescope Tracks Space Debris

US military announces new telescope to track space debris

The US Air Force has a new 3.5 meter telescope based in White Sands Missile Range near Socorro, New Mexico at a cost of around $110 million. It started taking its first images in February 2011. It will be in thoroughly tested, adjusted, and aligned over the coming months. One it passes inspection it will join the Space Surveillance Network.

If it passes inspection and testing it will likely begin collection data in around 6 months.

The Air Force says if they see noticeable improvements over current technology they will consider placing similar telescopes at key points around the world. This would provide the ability to monitor the entire sky 360 degrees.

This will obviously be many months down the road yet however, it could be a key development for tracking the thousands of space debris that circles the globe.