Run Out of Space

By MIRROR REPORTER

SPACE is becoming overcrowded – but it will take a disaster to alert people to the dangers, a scientist has warned.

Satellite operators, space agencies and prospective space tourism companies are all vying for elbow room in the great black yonder.

It means the risk of collisions between different spacecraft and between satellites and space junk is increasing all the time.

Now Bill Ailor, director of the US Air Force-funded Centre for Orbital and Re-entry Debris Studies, fears it will take a major collision to push space-faring nations into creating a galactic equivalent of air traffic control.

He said: “The Inter- Agency Space Debris Co-ordination Committee calls for avoidance of collisions but does not recommend on how this should be implemented.”