Since the start of the space era, over 4,000 space launches have been made. Only 5% of the almost 1,000 artificial space objects orbiting the Earth are in operation, Rykhlova told an international conference on near-earth astronomy in the mountain village of Terskol in Russia's internal republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.
This factor must be taken into account when new launches are planned. Russian researchers have drawn up charts of objects observed from Earth, including about 10,000 "satellites" with a diameter of over one meter, she said.
The conference brought together more than 100 researchers from Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Bulgaria, who will discuss the origin and migration of small bodies in the solar system, the influence of the interplanetary medium on space and Earth objects, the problem of celestial bodies' collisions with the Earth and the pollution of the atmosphere.
