How space traffic in orbit could spell trouble on Earth
It was February 2009, and a disaster was about to occur 500 miles above Siberia: A dead Russian satellite, Cosmos-2251, was on a direct collision course with a communications satellite operated by Iridium, an American company.
The orbits of the two wrapped around the globe, their paths forming a giant X. As they approached one another, it would have been clear to anyone watching that they were headed for exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
But no one was watching. The satellites crashed into each other, at a relative speed of more than 22,000 miles per hour.
How space traffic in orbit could spell trouble on Earth
It was February 2009, and a disaster was about to occur 500 miles above Siberia: A dead Russian satellite, Cosmos-2251, was on a direct collision course with a communications satellite operated by Iridium, an American company.
The orbits of the two wrapped around the globe, their paths forming a giant X. As they approached one another, it would have been clear to anyone watching that they were headed for exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
But no one was watching. The satellites crashed into each other, at a relative speed of more than 22,000 miles per hour.
