Russian military to develop Anti-Meteorite defences

The Russian Aerospace Defense Forces will develop a series of measures aimed at protecting the Russian soil from falling meteorites and other dangerous space objects, commander of the western military district’s aviation Maj. Gen. Igor Makushev said on Wednesday. “The Aerospace Defense Forces have been ordered to handle this issue and come up with a plan to protect Russia from these ‘space travelers,’” Makushev said. The announcement comes days after a meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere undetected by existing space-monitoring means and slammed into Russia’s Urals on Friday with a massive boom that blew out windows and damaged thousands of buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk, injuring 1,200 people in the area. According to the Health Ministry, 52 were hospitalized, RIA Novosti reported.