Randy Zipser
EF4
I have a question for discussion with our ST satellite experts:
With all the "space junk" in Earth orbit nowadays, and dozens more satellites launched weekly by the U.S. alone, why do we not hear more credible accounts about collisions between satellites, especially those that may fall out of orbit due to age and/or "end of useful life" status? How do all countries that launch Earth-orbit satellites keep track of where all their satellites are at any given point in time, let alone being aware of those of other countries, particularly adversarial ones to the U.S. like Russia and China? I bring up this topic because of a recent news story (please see attachment) about a manned Chinese spacecraft that was recently impacted by some space junk, affecting the schedule of the astronauts.
Any thoughts about this would be appreciated.
With all the "space junk" in Earth orbit nowadays, and dozens more satellites launched weekly by the U.S. alone, why do we not hear more credible accounts about collisions between satellites, especially those that may fall out of orbit due to age and/or "end of useful life" status? How do all countries that launch Earth-orbit satellites keep track of where all their satellites are at any given point in time, let alone being aware of those of other countries, particularly adversarial ones to the U.S. like Russia and China? I bring up this topic because of a recent news story (please see attachment) about a manned Chinese spacecraft that was recently impacted by some space junk, affecting the schedule of the astronauts.
Any thoughts about this would be appreciated.
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