GENEVA (AP) -- The tidy Swiss want to clean up space. Swiss
scientists said Wednesday they plan to launch a "janitor
satellite" specially designed to get rid of orbiting debris
known as space junk. The 10-million-franc ($11-million)
satellite called CleanSpace One -- the prototype for a family of
such satellites -- is being built by the Swiss Space Center at
the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Lausanne, or EPFL.
EPFL said Wednesday its launch would come within three to five
years and its first tasks are to grab two Swiss satellites
launched in 2009 and 2010. The U.S. space agency NASA says over
500,000 pieces of spent rocket stages, broken satellites and
other debris are being tracked as they orbit Earth. The debris
travels at speeds approaching 17,500 miles per hour (28,000
kilometers per hour), fast enough to destroy or inflict costly
and time-draining damage on a satellite or spacecraft.
Collisions, in turn, generate more fragments floating in space.
"It has become essential to be aware of the ex