A potential collision in space was narrowly avoided last week involving a newly deployed Chinese satellite and one of SpaceX’s approximately 9,000 Starlink satellites operating in low Earth orbit. SpaceX attributed the near miss to the satellite operator’s failure to share location data.
According to Michael Nicolls, Vice President of Starlink Engineering, “When satellite operators do not share ephemeris for their satellites, dangerously close approaches can occur in space.” He noted that nine satellites were launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwestern China a few days prior to the incident. Nicolls claimed that there appears to have been no coordination or measures taken to avoid interactions with existing satellites, resulting in a close approach of approximately 200 meters between one of the newly deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 at an altitude of 560 kilometers.
Starlink satellites are equipped with systems that allow them to autonomously adjust their courses to prevent collisions. However, for these systems to function effectively, they require knowledge of potential hazards, which relies on shared data from other satellite operators. Recently, Starlink spacecraft executed over 144,000 maneuvers in the first half of 2025 to avoid objects in their vicinity.
In response to the situation, the Chinese commercial space launch company, CAS Space, asserted that the incident occurred nearly 48 hours after the payload had been separated, suggesting that the launch mission had already concluded.
Currently, more than 24,000 objects, which include satellites and debris, are tracked in low Earth orbit, marking a 76% increase since 2019. Projections indicate that this number could grow to as many as 70,000 by the end of the decade, largely due to the proliferation of space internet constellations initiated by private and government organizations in various countries.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/news/844502/starlink-and-chinese-satellites-nearly-collided-last-week