Exton company Analytical Graphics, Inc. is tracking thousands of space objects to prevent dangerous space debris collisions such as the Oct. 27 close call of debris and the International Space Station.

The European Space Agency reported Nov.4  that its transfer vehicle saved the day by firing thrusters to push the orbital outpost and six occupants out of harm’s way.

It was an incident that eerily resembled events from the Academy Award Winning film “Gravity“. The debris originated from a collision between Russia’s Cosmos-2251 satellite and an active U.S. commercial Iridium satellite way back on Feb. 14, 2009. The object was around the size of a hand and calculations showed it would pass within 4 km.

At that time Bob Hall, technical director for AGI, was widely quoted about the incident and the company released video and images recreating the collision here.

AGI has tools such as SOCRATES (Satellite Orbital Conjunction Reports Assessing Threatening Encounters in Space) which run daily and look for close approaches. Its Commercial Space Operations Center, or ComSpOC for short, relies on optical and radio tracking assets and the company’s own space surveillance software.

AGI plays a key role in the Defense Department’s Joint Space Operations Center Joint Mission System, an upgrade to the aging system that provides critical support to U.S. military and other space operations.

The 25-year-old company is headed by CEO Paul Graziani.

The United Nations has called space debris mitigation one of the ten stories the world should hear more about.

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Top photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center via photopin cc