US EditionPublished • loading... • Updated
SpaceX Satellite's Near-Miss with China Spacecraft Highlights Growing Space Congestion
SpaceX blames lack of mandatory coordination for the 200-meter near-collision with a Chinese satellite amid over 9,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit.
- On December 12, one of the nine Chinese-launched spacecraft nearly collided with a SpaceX satellite, bringing the crafts within 200 meters of STARLINK-6079 at 560 km altitude.
- SpaceX blamed the absence of shared ephemeris for the close approach, while CAS Space said the incident occurred nearly 48 hours after payload separation and the launch mission had concluded.
- Starlink satellites can autonomously adjust course to dodge debris but require known orbits, and the fleet performed over 144,000 automatic avoidance maneuvers in early 2025.
- Industry figures warned the close approach increases orbital safety concerns, with Michael Nicolls urging improved coordination among satellite operators; over 24,000 objects are tracked in low Earth orbit.
- Around 13,000 satellites currently share orbit, with projections of 70,000 by decade's end, raising experts' concerns about a Kessler syndrome cascade from collisions.
Insights by Ground AI
16 Articles
16 Articles
According to SpaceX, the satellite operator did not share the orbit data.
·Hungary
Read Full Article
Starlink and Chinese satellites nearly collided last week
Starlink satellites with solar arrays deployed. | Image: SpaceX A collision in space was narrowly avoided last week when a newly deployed Chinese satellite came within a few hundred meters of one of the roughly 9,000 Starlink satellites currently operating in low Earth orbit. SpaceX is laying the blame on the satellite operator for not sharing location data. "When satellite operators do not share ephemeris for their satellites, dangerously clos…
·United States
Read Full ArticleCoverage Details
Total News Sources16
Leaning Left5Leaning Right0Center1Last UpdatedBias Distribution83% Left
Bias Distribution
- 83% of the sources lean Left
83% Left
L 83%
C 17%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
