Grants will promote ideas to detect, characterise and track the millions of objects moving overhead.

SpaceX recently launched 60 satellites into orbit around Earth as part of its Starlink programme.

Experts said a collision would have created a debris field, risking damage to other satellites.

The TechDemoSat spacecraft deploys a large membrane to pull itself out of the sky.

The head of the US space agency said last week's anti-satellite weapon test was a "terrible thing".

A British-led mission demonstrates a projectile that could one day be used to clear up space junk.

The British-led mission to test techniques to clear up space junk initiates its second experiment.