TWO SATELLITES COLLIDE IN ORBIT

TWO SATELLITES COLLIDE IN ORBIT
-------------------------------
In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications
satellite and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos satellite ran into each
other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage,
officials said today.

http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/11iridium/

wrote (with clarity & insight):


Is this not something that's anticipated & calculated? Why track all
this stuff if they can't/don't predict collisions? There's no mention
that this event was expected...what's up?

wrote:


Well, maybe it WAS expected. It's not like anyone could do anything
about it.


--
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
They move Dish network and DirectTV satellites don't they?

Not true at all, most LEO satellites would be flown the entire time they are
in orbit, they have to be otherwise they would only last a short time and
that would end up very expensive.

Mind you that siad even with the huge number of objects in orbit there is an
aweful lot of space up there and you only have to just miss everything else.