Satellites of love

It's getting crowded up there. The U.S. Strategic Command, which tracks everything in orbit apparently missed the likelihood of an orbital mishap when a Russian and American satellite collided in low earth orbit over Siberia in a rare mash-up. Moving at 6 miles per second, the crash involved one of the 66 Iridium communications satellites and an out off service Russian Cosmos-2251 military satellite. The crash occurred 485 miles above the earth and the risk to the International Space Station and other orbital assets is still being determined. Apparently the rules that currently exist for the maintenance of orbital traffic are sketchy and no one wants to designate a traffic cop. With so much junk in orbit it's only a matter of time before another accident occurs. When that happens, it'll be interesting to see who hands out and who gets the ticket. Just as long as the owner doesn't have AIG as the insurer.