Over the years that human beings have managed to push objects past the pull of gravity and into space, there has accumulated a considerable amount of junk orbiting the planet Earth. Today the Air Force is worried about all this junk in space as it could be quite dangerous to future missions. Why is that so, lets find out.

The space junk consists of 500,000 pieces of old satellites, rocket parts, debris from collisions and more floating around the earth in its Geo-stationary orbit. Most of this is like a string of bombs waiting to cause explosions and complications in the future.

NASA says that anything larger than 1 centimeter in diameter poses a threat to the International Space Station. However only objects larger than 10 centimeters are currently being monitored. The Air Force is planning on setting up a powerful new radar system which will be able to pass on a whole lot more information about these dangerous hazards.

The radar system will be based out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands and will become operational in 2019. This is one science project that will have a great impact on the study of existing hazards in the orbit around the earth. Then there will be an even more difficult choice to make, how to remove them.