Guardians' Ingenious Collision Avoidance at Hypersonic Speeds

The 18th Space Defense Squadron (SDS) of the Space Force plays a crucial role in monitoring and tracking artificial objects in Earth's orbit to ensure the safety of satellites, astronauts, and space exploration endeavors. Using the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN), the squadron tracks over 45,000 objects in orbit, updating a public catalog of objects in Earth orbit. The 18th SDS works with its sister squadron to predict satellite trajectories and prevent collisions. However, there are still over a million small objects that pose a collision threat but are too small to track. The need for an international space traffic management system has been emphasized to better coordinate and mitigate traffic challenges in space.