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     Report: NASA Failing in Mission to Find Dangerous Asteroids Near Earth

   by VOA News

   The U.S. space agency's inspector general says NASA is failing in its
   congressionally-ordered mission to find 90 percent of potentially
   dangerous asteroids flying close to Earth.

   The official, Paul Martin, Monday criticized the agency's Near Earth
   Object program as being understaffed and badly managed.

   In his report, he says the program has so far found just 10 percent of
   asteroids and other objects bigger than 140 meters across and flying 45
   million kilometers from Earth.

   The program is tasked with finding 90 percent of these objects. The
   inspector general's report says the program likely will miss its 2020
   deadline.

   Most near-Earth objects harmlessly disintegrate before striking the
   planet.

   But a relatively small asteroid exploded over Chelyabinsk in southern
   Russia last year with the force of 30 atomic bombs.

   Historians believe a 10-kilometer-wide object hit the Earth about 66
   million years ago in what is now Mexico, killing nearly all life on the
   planet and causing dinosaurs to become extinct.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-failing-mission-to-find-dangerou
   s-asteroids/2451039.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/nasa-failing-mission-to-find-dangerous-asteroids/2451039.html