WHAT'S UP THERE?

September, 1996
Source: Focus Magazine.
A satellites velocity and altitude are directly linked. When a spacecraft fires its rocket in orbit, it speeds up and moves away from the earth. If it fires a braking rocket, it slows down and moves closer to the earth. It's like swinging a stone on a piece of elastic - the faster you swing it, the more the elastic stretches and the further out the rock moves.

LEOs move slowly - slower than the earth's rotation speed - and thus have a moving "footprint" of coverage as they orbit. Faster, higher orbiters, known as geostationary satellites, orbit at the same speed as the earth's rotation and so appear to hover over one spot.

The Goddard Space Centre has identified 8,060 man-made objects orbiting the earth, of which 2,343 are thought to be "payloads" - whole spacecraft. Which ones are still working is hard to tell, but it's estimated that 400 active payloads are currently circling the earth. Some 50 of these are US or Russian navigation satellites, with another 50-odd scientific, meteorological and military intelligence payloads. The rest are mostly early warning devices and communications satellites, all of them jostling for space in the crowded orbit.

And if you're wondering what would happen if any of them ever collided, you're not alone. Scientists fear that any collisions in the geosynchronous orbit would create a load of debris that could set off a chain reaction as more crashes create more debris. The current policy appears to be to cross fingers and hope it never happens.

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