Can the Pentagon Save Earth from Space Junk?
Two of the biggest U.S. defense companies are battling for a big contract that doesn't involve foreign armies or terrorists but a less earthly threat.
The Pentagon later this month plans to award a contract for the first phase of its $6 billion project dubbed the Space Fence, a radar system that would track more of the fast-growing field of debris in space that threatens to disable or destroy satellites and manned spacecraft.
Lockheed Martin Corp. LMT -0.88% and Raytheon Co. RTN -0.70% are competing for a contract to build a powerful radar system intended to quintuple the amount of space junk the U.S. can monitor, and enable officials to warn satellite operators to move their spacecraft before possible collisions.
The initial $1 billion Space Fence contract to build a radar station on an atoll in the Marshall Islands is highly prized as Pentagon budget pressures have reduced the number of new military projects to a trickle, with the winner able to stake a better claim for follow-on business, such as a second station in Australia.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304655304579551963144134536.html
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Our priorities are wrong. 
