MESSENGER successfully completed an orbit-correction maneuver on March 2 to lower its periapsis altitude - the lowest point of MESSENGER's orbit about Mercury relative to the planet's surface - from 405 to 200 kilometers (251 to 124 miles).

While NASA has "responsibly" used its resources in detecting meteoroids and orbital debris, the growing amount of space junk and the danger it poses to the crew of the International Space Station requires additional funding for the U.S. space agency's detection and monitoring efforts.

The MESSENGER spacecraft continued to fine-tune its orbit around Mercury yesterday afternoon when mission controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Md, successfully executed the second orbit-correction maneuver of the mission.

A Pentagon report warned that space is so littered with debris that a collision between satellites could set off an "uncontrolled chain reaction" capable of destroying the communications network on Earth.

Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) announced recently that Dr Kristin L Gates will present a paper on de-orbiting space junk at the August 2 Artificial and Natural Space Debris session of the AIAA Astrodynamics Specialists Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.