Satellites were big news in 1957 when Russia sent the first one into space. Now they are scarcely news at all, although they still seem pretty miraculous to most of us. Every nation wants to get into the act, sending up satellites for espionage, communications, scientific research and, above all, for profit. In urban areas we rarely look up at the sky at night because there’s no point. Light pollution blots everything out. But out in the countryside – the deep countryside beyond the towns and villages, and the roads, away from the glow of street lights or any lights at all – the stars shine very bright in nature’s planetarium. On a clear night, in the right place, I can see some of those satellites, or think I can, shining and winking out there in what used to be called the heavens, but now I suppose must be called the military-industrial communications resource region. It’s getting crowded in space. There are about five thousand satellites in earth’s orbit, and there will soon be