The Air Force’s ability to track asteroids and space junk is severely hampered by budget cuts that have left Space Command with $500 million less than planned this year, which has created a major drop in capability, the top space officer said.Mandatory budget reductions that took effect March 1, known as sequestration, have interrupted Space Command’s push toward tracking even more space objects than the 23,000 it already monitors. It also has limited the command’s ability to track missiles and work with other space agencies on threats from meteors and asteroids.
For example, Space Command tracked the recent asteroid 2012 DA14 event, a near-miss by a 30-kilometer-wide asteroid this year.