US warns of satellite collision risk in the universe

At a November 3 space conference in Omaha, Nebraska, the US military warned of an increased risk of collisions between satellites in the universe.

The risk of satellite collision on the universe is increasing.(Artwork / cnes.fr)

According to General Kevin Chilton, commander of the US Strategic Command, the US military is daily monitoring the risk of collisions of 800 controllable satellites and it is likely that more than 500 satellites cannot be monitored. Control later this year.

The US Air Force is also tracking more than 20,000 satellites, used missile floors and many other objects in the universe, up from 14,000 satellites a few years ago. General Chilton emphasized that only American objects could "see", but the actual number could be much greater.

The US Air Force began to upgrade its ability to predict the risk of collision in space after the February 10 collision between a telecommunications satellite that had shut down the Russian military with a spear satellite. commercial of Iridium company (USA).

After this event, the US realized that similar collisions could occur regularly on the vast universe. Before that, the US military only supervised less than 100 satellites every day.

The US military is continuing to upgrade its infrastructure and invest in people to improve its ability to analyze crash risks in the universe.