Things That Go Bump in the Sky

Accidents happen. For instance, legend has it that the first couple of automobiles ever built in Detroit managed to collide with each other. Considering how many satellites are in Earth orbit, I guess this was bound to happen sooner or later:

Satellites Destroyed in Orbital Collision

A commercial satellite owned by a U.S. company was destroyed in a collision with a defunct Russian military satellite in what NASA said was the first such accident in orbit, raising new concerns about the dangers of space debris.

The crash, which happened Tuesday in low-earth orbit, involved one of the satellites owned by closely held Iridium Satellite LLC and a crippled Russian military satellite that apparently stopped functioning years ago, according to U.S. government and satellite-industry officials.

The collision created two large clouds of debris floating roughly 480 miles above Siberia, and prompted space scientists and engineers to assess the likelihood of further collisions.

There have been other collisions of defunct satellites with pieces of space debris, and the space shuttle nearly collided with space junk in 1991, but this is the first time that two completely whole satellites smashed together.

Maybe everyone ought to get together to build a net work of large geo-synch satellites that would carry signals for everybody - friend and foe - and that way no one would risk an accidental or intentional mishap. Of course that would require a degree of cooperation that isn't likely to happen any day soon.