''When a small piece of rock would fall on the Earth 100 years ago, it could have caused minimal damage and would have stayed largely undetected, but Friday's accident fully demonstrated how vulnerable the technological civilization of today has become,'' said Vladimir Lipunov, head of the Space Monitoring Laboratory with Moscow State University.
''It is high time Russia should start investing heavily in building an advanced space danger monitoring and warning system and a system capable of destroying such super bombs falling on us,'' he said.
His remarks echoed concern among government officials. ''Today neither Russia nor the United States is capable of shooting down objects from outer space,'' tweeted Dmitry Rogozin, Vice-Premier in charge of the nation's defense industry.
