Perhaps we need space traffic officers
“Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” (Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)
Well, apparently it’s not THAT big… 
Two satellites collided in Earth orbit yesterday, in an unprecedented event. The collision took place somewhere over Siberia, and it involved an Iridium communications satellite, which was launched in 1997, and a Russian Cosmos satellite launched in 1993 that apparently was not functioning. Each weighed more than 450 kg, and officials said they were tracking hundreds of pieces of wreckage produced by the crash.
Even though NASA has a real-time map that tracks more than 8,000 man-made objects orbiting Earth, including about 2,500 satellites (operational or defunct), it seems to have been pretty much useless in this case.
The Iridium satellite was one of a network of 66 satellites in low-Earth orbit. The company said the loss would have “minimal impact” on service to its 309,000 subscribers, which include the Pentagon, other government agencies and various land, sea and aviation industries. The Defense Department is the dominant user. The Iridium system, developed by Motorola, has had a rocky ride over the years, including bankruptcy by its former owners.
