If there are many satellites orbiting earth, how do space launches not bump into any of them?
In: 2066
I work in this field! Launches (from US allied nations, at least) are always screened using a process called Launch Conjunction Assessment.
As others have said, satellite orbits are carefully tracked and predicted – the planned trajectory of the launch vehicle is compared to all those predicted trajectories to predict any close approaches and associated risk over a given launch window. The mission director can then select an appropriate launch time with minimal risk of collision with any satellite or debris already in orbit.
Space IS big, as others have said, but if you just randomly select a launch time into a crowded orbit regime, existing satellites and especially debris ARE a huge problem – since satellites are amazingly expensive, you want to minimize risk as much as possible.
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