Planetes

Planetes (プラネテス) is a hard-science fiction manga written and illustrated by Maloto Yukimura. Sunrise (known for making anime set in space) adapted the manga into a 26-episode anime and aired on NHK from October 4, 2003 to April 17, 2004, the series was given an official English-language release by Bandai Entertainment AnimeCentral aired the series in the United Kingdom, the series has revolves around astronauts tasks with collecting debris surrounding the Earth (Kessler Syndrome). The series been praised for its realism and attention to detail. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) provided scientific consultants for the series and the North American DVD release features interviews from NASA's Orbital Debris Section.

Plot
The series revolves around astronauts working for the space debris section of the Technora Corporation (insultingly called "Half Section" by the higher ups of the company), they work at the ISVP7 Space Stion owned by Technora and their team and the ship "DS-12 Toy Box" are tasked with collecting debris to avoid damaging spacecraft. The series introduces us with idealist Ai Tanabe who has been assigned to the debris section, she is enthusastic about becoming an astronaut and gets off to an uneasy start with debris collect and Senpai Hachirota "Hachimaki" Hoshino. The series deals with many issues including how environmentally friendly energy such as Solar and Nuclear becoming widespread in the 2070s has caused poverty and conflict in oil-rich countries, corporate and bureaucratic problems, the problems with space travel such as cancer and radiation sickness.

In the latter half of the series, Hachi becomes determined to become part of the crew of the fusion-powered Von Braun (named after the famous German-American rocket scientist), a powerful ship built to bring humans to Jupiter for the first time, it causes tensions with some of his former friends, meanwhile the Space Defense Front, a terrorist organization that has its ideologies rooted in the poverty and conflict in the new age of exploration, tries to prevent the mission.

Official
http://www.planet-es.net/

Other Sources
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=2654