There’s a reason why the military is doing this, a big part of that is they are worried about not only debris collisions with military satellites, but potential adversaries using small space objects to try and attack satellites.

Brian Weeden

Categorized in : Science

However, I'm not sure if that will be enough. by Brian Weeden

However, I'm not sure if that will be enough.

Pretty much everything theyre doing are things the U.S. already has done in the past, china is still catching up.

If the goal is to land people on the moon by 2024, that doesnt leave a lot of time to do test flights, whether or not its too risky is above my pay grade. This is a huge debate.

The question has always been politics. by Brian Weeden

The question has always been politics.

We know through some scientific work, that there’s roughly half a million pieces of space debris larger than let’s say half an inch, but smaller than four inches, that’s there but we can’t track it right now.

The decision itself was interesting in that it was wrapped up in the whole sequestration discussion. That was the rationale that the Air Force Space Command gave.

The ISS has been the primary mechanism for NASA's international collaboration, and there was a lot of questions over what comes next.