Russia to build space warning system

Russia says it will spend $2.1 million to create an automatic warning system to prevent collisions between spaceships, satellites and orbital debris.

Russian space agency Roscosmos said Wednesday the system will monitor objects in orbit and warn of potentially dangerous situations -- such as when spaceships, satellites and their waste come too close to each other, or when an object re-enters Earth's atmosphere uncontrolled, China's official Xinhua news agency reported.

The telescope-based system will be capable of monitoring 30 space vehicles and raising an alarm at least 30 hours before the situation becomes dangerous, Roscosmos said.

The decision to build the early warning system comes after a Phobos-Grunt mission failed in January due to faulty propulsion units and fell back to Earth, crashing into the Pacific Ocean.

"The latest event confirmed the necessity of developing the means and capabilities to clean up near-Earth space and the danger from artificial objects," Roscosmos said.