This debris is composed of parts of old satellites as well as entire defunct satellites and rocket bodies. The debris poses risks to the International Space Station and threatens things we take for granted on Earth -- weather forecasting, GPS and telecommunications. A demonstration mission to test new technology developed by the company Astroscale to clean up space debris is set to launch in the early hours of Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. A Soyuz 2 rocket will launch a 175-kilogram spacecraft with a satellite attached into space. It will do this in a series of different maneuvers, with the mission expected to end in September or October of this year.

Source: CNN March 19, 2021 10:30 UTC