The report, Limitingfuture collision risktospacecraft, was commissioned byNasalastApril to evaluate its programmeson 'spacejunk', officially known as MMOD (MicrometeoroidsandOrbitalDebris).
This network is a set of geostationary communications satellites (ie, spacecraft that have an orbital period of 24 hours, and so hover over the same place).
Later this year two spacecraft, one which has been designed by Orbital Sciences, a Virginia-based firm, and another by SpaceX, a Californian company run by Elon Musk, an internet entrepreneur, will make cargo runs to the ISS. The hope is that such craft will soon be able to carry humans too, and at a far lower cost than NASA's efforts.