Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that South Africa and Russia are discussing a joint project to remove space debris from near-Earth orbit.
We are currently talking with them [partners from South Africa] about the possibility of joint work to remove space debris from orbit.
The President also added that the countries can engage in joint astronaut training.
Let's recall, at the end of July in South Africa a Russian optoelectronic complex for operational monitoring of space debris was opened. The station can detect space debris at altitudes from 120 to 40 thousand km, as well as determine the angular coordinates of space objects and identify them.
According to scientists' calculations, there are currently almost 128 million pieces of debris larger than 1 mm in space and 34 thousand fragments larger than 10 cm.