[BenLurkin]

Not good.

[Billthedrill]

They’ll be hurtling along their orbit at a relative velocity of about 32,880 miles per hour...

That's gonna leave a dent all right.

[Responsibility2nd]

Space Junk. Wikipedia...

As of October 2019, the US Space Surveillance Network reported nearly 20,000 artificial objects in orbit above the Earth,[7] including 2,218 operational satellites.[8] However, these are just the objects large enough to be tracked. As of January 2019, more than 128 million pieces of debris smaller than 1 cm (0.4 in), about 900,000 pieces of debris 1–10 cm, and around 34,000 of pieces larger than 10 cm were estimated to be in orbit around the Earth.[9]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Maybe DJT’s Space Force can tackle these problems.

[Cold Heart]

Hey you got chocolate on my peanut butter

[SgtHooper]

Veeger is about to be born.

[Bitman]

Chain reaction?

[M Kehoe]

Nomad?

Vger?

Or some fireworks over Pittsburgh?

5.56mm

[UCANSEE2]

“What happens if the retired space telescope and former spy satellite crash into each other? “

Well.... the couple will mate and all of a sudden there will be hundreds of baby satellites.

[Redwood71]

Currently, there are about 5,000 satellites in orbit around Earth, around 2,000 of which are still operational according to the most recent report from the European Space Agency.

And SpaceX, Boeing and now Amazon hope to drastically improve satellite internet, one batch of low-orbiting satellites at a time. The most recent SpaceX launch added 60 satellites to their active fleet, an early fraction of the nearly 12,000 the company plans to set into orbit in the coming months. This is the result of the creation of teledesic by Gates, the money, Boeing, the satellite builder, Craig McCaw, for the devices needed, and the US government for airspace in the early 1990’s.

And someone is worried about two coming close to each other? It’s already a dump up there.

rwood

[bigbob]

They’ll de-orbit, eventually...

[decal]

Aw, just send up Phil Swift and some Flex Seal...

[Paal Gulli]

All 3000 of them could collide. It doesn't get worrisome until they might or will.

"The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning."
-- Mark Twain

[SuperLuminal]

"What happens if the retired space telescope and former spy satellite crash into each other?"

Massive NASA/NSA orgasm...

[txnativegop]

If the powers that be know a satellite has a finite life span, why do they not build and program it to burn itself up in the atmosphere?

Instead there will be even more space junk floating around.

[PIF]

What happens if the retired space telescope and former spy satellite crash into each other?

you get a bigger telescope on the spy satellite?

[DannyTN]

What happens if the retired space telescope and former spy satellite crash into each other?

• You get a retired spy satellite?
• You get a spy space telescope?
• RED - Retired Extreme Depth Perception?

[Texas Eagle]

Events like this highlight the need for responsible, timely deorbiting of satellites and space sustainability moving forward,” the company tweeted.

Yes, of course. Not to mention gobs and gobs of money.

[Texas Eagle]

Sounds like a job for The US Space Force. Shoot those suckers down.

[lurk]

This would be so easy to fix. Send out small pods about the size of a coffee can that contain a thin nylon net and a mini thruster. The net captures the target and the thruster slows down the object, subjecting it to gravity. Cost would be minimal.

[Mr. K]

I can’t believe they don’t drop these in the ocean when no longer needed