US Satellites Dodging Chinese Missile Debris

GSGKT writes "Today's Washington Times runs a story about the increasing problem with space junk orbiting the earth. Debris from the anti-satellite missile test by the Chinese military last year threatens the integrity of more than 800 operating satellites, half of them belonging to the US. Two orbiting U.S. spacecraft were forced to change course to avoid being damaged soon after the incident. Air Force Brig. Gen. Ted Kresge, director of air, space and information operations at the Air Force Space Command in Colorado, estimates that "essentially (Chinese anti-satellite tests) increase the amount of space debris orbiting the Earth by about 20 percent", and the debris might threaten spacecraft for up to 100 years."

Comments

Re:Well

[The_Xnuiem]

Unless, of course, the Chinese have developed some sort of non-Newtonian thruster system that lets their space trash hover in one place.

Um...my DirectTV satellite does just that. It's called a geostationary orbit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_orbit. It has been around for quite some time and is used for most telecommunication satellite. It does require thrusters here and there due to debris, solar winds, etc... but for the most part it just sits in one place above the earth and appears stationary to an observer on the ground.