Video: When satellites almost collide

NASA discusses the science of avoiding space junk

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NASA has posted a new video discussing some of the events surrounding the events of late March and early April 2012, when it was discovered that the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope was on a collision course with Cosmos 1805, a Cold-War era spy satellite.

As NASA states: "While Fermi is in fine shape today, continuing its mission to map the highest-energy light in the universe, the story of how it sidestepped a potential disaster offers a glimpse at an under appreciated aspect of managing a space mission: orbital traffic control.

The video explains more:

It's pretty sobering once you realize how much space material is floating up around the planet, and that collisions (or near-miss collisions) don't take place more often. This is a great video from the folks at NASA.

Keith Shaw rounds up the best in geek video in his ITworld.tv blog. Follow Keith on Twitter at @shawkeith. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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Keith Shaw writes the Cool Tools column for Network World, and is the Multimedia Content Editor for IDG Enterprise, responsible for editorial video and audio content creation. Follow him on Twitter @shawkeith.

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