20.10 Fighting Asteroids a New Task for Russias Space Industry
MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) Russias space agency has a new mission on its plate: fighting asteroids, the organizations head said Sunday.
Oleg Ostapenko, chief of the Roscosmos federal space agency, said that meetings had been arranged with the Russian Academy of Sciences to discuss the project and later confer with scientists. Its an interesting topic, he said.
Detecting and combating threatening space rocks is a complex task, Ostapenko added, which may also require teamwork with Russias Aerospace Defense Forces. The issue can be solved only within the framework of all our countrys possibilities, he said.
The announcement follows last weeks discovery of a 410-meter-wide (1,350 foot) asteroid that could hit Earth in 2032, which Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called a super-task for our space industry.
Scientists initial estimates say the asteroid has a 1 in 63,000 chance of colliding with Earth on August 26, 2032, though they said astronomers will be able to better evaluate the impact risk in 2028.
