The first human-made object to orbit the Earth was Sputnik 1, which blasted off on October 4th, 1957. In the decades since, weve launched thousands of additional satellites. The modern world would surely grind to a halt without them. But now, there are so many up there that we might literally be running out of space.
It turns out there are only so many places you can put a satellite and have it stay where you want it to be. If a satellite is too low, it will simply fall from the sky, too high, and it will gradually drift into deep space. With so many in orbit, keeping them all from slamming into each other is a task that gets more difficult every passing year! Date: 2022-04-19
