3 ms·
Unless they happen to collide with something due to their deteriorating, less predictable orbits, of course.
by gspr 5y ago
Unless they happen to collide with something due to their deteriorating, less predictable orbits, of course.
- rtkwe 5y agoEven when their orbit starts decaying they're not generally a direct threat to other satellites as long as they can maneuver. The US maintains a pretty good tracking network that will pick up any whole satellite at least once every few orbits. On that timescale there's not a significant change to the orbit of an object so they remain pretty predictable out far enough for a maneuverable satellite to make a small change to avoid a collision.
- mlindner 5y agoEven if they hit something, those debris would also decay in roughly the same time frame.