Space Really Does Need Traffic Cops

In the early Space Age, the people who sent up satellites could operate under what's known as "big sky" theory. Space is so vast, so spacious, that we could never possibly use it all up. History, however, has repeatedly shown that whenever we think something is too abundant for humans to deplete, we're wrong. And so it is in space, where more and more satellites and space junk threaten to crash into each other and crowd out the future. In 2016, the Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron had to tell satellite operators to watch out for each other 3,995,874 times.