How can Rocket Engineers make sure that a rocket will not crash into satellites that already orbit the Earth?
In: Engineering
[https://www.quora.com/How-do-satellites-avoid-colliding-with-each-other](https://www.quora.com/How-do-satellites-avoid-colliding-with-each-other)
Not sure you realise just how big space is. It’s not like a crowded street up there. There are 3000 satellites up there, in near earth orbit. There are more cars in your town, and that’s a few square miles in 2 dimensions. Up there you have millions of square miles in 3 dimensions. Each satellite might be as big as a car, but most are much smaller (maybe 1m3). If you were standing on one satellite, you probably couldn’t even see the next nearest one because it’s 100s or 1000s of miles away.
Now, I’ll admit, we do know where they all are, and we don’t just fire em up there and hope for the best, but it’s pretty rare that they do collide.
Latest Answers