• An illustration depicting more than 300,000 objects currently orbiting Earth.

An illustration depicting more than 300,000 objects currently orbiting Earth. (Photo : www.space.com)

China on Monday launched a space debris monitoring center to protect orbiting Chinese spacecraft.

The new center, which lies under the supervision of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), will track and monitor space debris and near-earth objects, the state-owned Xinhua News Agency said in a report on Monday.

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The center will also be used to develop emergency response plans, develop measures for emergency situations, and share data with international counterparts.

Xu Dazhe, head of SASTIND, said that the center will make use of existing observatory facilities in China as well as take advantage of domestic and foreign surveillance data to set up its own monitoring network for space debris.

Space debris is generally man-made objects left in space, ranging from small screws and bolts to broken satellites and jettisoned rocket components.

According to Xinhua, more than 300,000 pieces of debris are believed to be orbiting Earth with average speeds of 10 kilometers per second--around 40 times faster than conventional aircraft.

At such speeds, even the tiniest pieces of debris can damage or destroy spacecraft and satellites, the report said.

To date, China has 129 spacecraft in orbit, including the Tiangong-1 space station launched in 2011 and expected to last for two years.

The country has registered an average of 30 incidents each year where pieces of space junk have come dangerously close--less than 100 meters--to Chinese spacecraft, said Yan Jun, head of the CAS astronomical observatory.