Space debris 'needs addressing'

UK engineers are developing a system to harpoon rogue or redundant satellites and pull them out of the sky.

It is one of a number of responses to the ever growing problem of orbital junk, old pieces of hardware that continue to circle the Earth and which now pose a collision threat to operational spacecraft.

Professor Richard Crowther from the UK Space Agency says there is a short window of opportunity to get on top of the problem.