In the movie Gravity, masses upon masses of floating debris hurtled through space at alarming speeds and collided with the heroine’s space shuttle, killing her crew. Space junk isn’t just something made up for the movies, though — it’s a real issue that’s costing space agencies a whole lotta money. As such, Lockheed Martin has teamed up with Australian company Electro Optic Systems to build a space object tracking facility in western Australia, which the latter has been planning for years. While the U.S. Air Force’s debris-tracking Space Fence also developed by Lockheed Martin uses radar systems, this one will use an optical technology like those found in telescopes to zoom in on objects, and lasers to calculate their speed and distance from Earth.

read more Lockheed Martin to track space junk from the Australian Outback.