A new study finds that the geostationary orbit is becoming cluttered with inactive satellites due to the failure of spacefaring nations to move satellites into disposal orbits after they have ceased to function.
The U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs is considering proposals to establish pollution and air traffic controls in orbit.
The United States, China and most other major nations with satellites in space have failed to register all of them -- a violation of a Cold War-era U.N. convention intended to keep the arms race from moving into orbit.
Astronomers charge that the U.S. is not in compliance with the 1975 U.N. Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space because several U.S. spy satellites are not in the orbits the Pentagon says they are.
America's spy satellites are not in the orbits the Pentagon says they are, according to a respected space analyst. The errors will add to concerns over George W. Bush's plans to place weapons in space. If today's satellite orbits cannot be trusted, opponents reason, how will we verify the numbers of future space-based anti-missile lasers and anti-satellite weapons?
The author argues that spacefaring nations should pursue space traffic management to prevent collisions and avoid conflict.
A global network of satellite watchers post on the Internet the orbital paths and schedules of the five known U.S. spy imagery satellites. Anyone with a personal computer and a basic understanding of astronomy, from foreign intelligence agencies to weekend hobbyists, can calculate when these billion-dollar birds will pass over any point on Earth, and observe them as points of light hundreds of miles high in the night sky.