How congested is space with orbiting satellites from Earth?

Question

How congested is space with orbiting satellites from Earth?

Answer 1

Well there's a lot of junk, but there's a LOT of space.

I don't think it's something you would need to worry about if you were to launch a rocket or something.  The chances of a collision are pretty low.  But it could get to be worse in the future.  Trash could stay up there for decades or even centuries, so every time we add more the congestion gets worse.

Answer 2

Go to www.nasa.gov/jtrack.  You will see the representations of all the satellites.

Answer 3

There are a great number of them, and in the event that you were wondering about collisions, that there is still plenty of room for more!  Making use of three dimensions (i.e. air travel vs. road travel) creates many opportunities to avoid mid-orbital collisions...  and yet, I heard earlier today that  there was a mid-air collision involving two single engine planes, so even when you have an extra axis to avoid something on, doesn't mean it's always fool proof.

Answer 4

There are about 2650 saltellites in orbit.  That figure does not include space junk. Apparantly there's no real congestion because it's a pretty big area.  

Answer 5

It may be conjested but it is the job of the good folks at NORAD to track every last piece.

I herd somewhere that they have been tracking a dropped spanner for several decades. You know - one of those torqueless monkey wrenches.

Answer 6

With communication satellites, spy satellites, GPS satellites, satellites used for exploring different aspects of space, ect., ect., ect., ect. theres plenty congested in our orbit, just because u can't see something with your eye, doesn't mean its not there