I don't recall hearing about this when it happened. There's much more info in the article. A lot of satellites serve us in ways we take for granted and may be unaware of.

And I wonder how hard it would be for a country to intentionally crash a satellite and then plead: "Oooops!"


http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0351968920091103

Pentagon eyes crash analysis on 1,300 satellites

Tue Nov 3, 2009 6:09pm EST

The U.S. Air Force began upgrading its ability to predict possible collisions in space after a dead Russian military communications satellite and a commercial U.S. satellite owned by Iridium collided on Feb. 10.

The crash, which was not predicted by the U.S. military or private tracking groups, underscored the vulnerability of U.S. satellites, which are used for a huge array of military and civilian purposes.

Chilton said the Air Force was tracking more than 20,000 satellites, spent rocket stages and other objects in space, up from just 14,000 a few years ago.

But he said that was just what U.S. could "see" and there were estimates that the actual number was much greater, posing a potential threat to satellites on orbit.