Starlink VP confirms ‘dangerously close’ Chinese launch incident — close call saw satellite pass within 200 meters of Starlink travelling at over 17,400mph

News
By published

Chinese satellite came within 200m of Starlink-6079, travelling at ~17,400mph.

Starlink satellite
(Image credit: Starlink)

There was a notably “dangerously close” approach between a newly launched Chinese satellite and Starlink-6079 a few days ago. VP of SpaceX’s Starlink Engineering, Michael Nicolls, disclosed that a Chinese satellite came within 200m (219 yards) of an orbiting Starlink device. That’s an extremely close call with catastrophe, with Starlink LEO satellites known to travel at speeds exceeding 17,400mph. Nicholls called for improved coordination between space agencies.

Nicolls emphasized that near-misses like this will continue to happen. “Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators,” claimed the Starlink VP. “This needs to change.” Indeed, change is required to prevent the near-miss news, bad as it is, from taking a tragic twist.

There are approximately 12,000 active satellites now in LEO space, with probably 8,000 operated by Starlink. Starlink satellites travel at incredible speeds, exceeding 17,400mph, so a collision could easily destroy anything involved.

Moreover, the resulting high-velocity debris fragments, in their thousands, could cause far more damage, with some commenters on Nicolls’ post raising the specter of the Kessler Syndrome. That would be a chain reaction of collisions, exponentially increasing debris, and potentially making LEO space unusable for generations to come.

Science can help prevent such an unfortunate outcome, but global coordination is lacking, so a policy push seems to be required. China doesn’t notify or share trajectories to voluntary platforms such as the U.S. Space-Track.org or the UN’s International Telecommunications Union. Hopefully, it won’t need to see a massive space incident to prompt it into some sensible preventative collaborative action.

If you think LEO space is crowded now...

Meanwhile, plans for greater numbers of LEO satellites are forging ahead, cranking up the chance/danger of a collision. Starlink plans to expand its constellation to around 42,000 for global internet coverage. Amazon Leo has plans for over 3,200 satellites. In China, Guowang talks about targeting 13,000 satellites, and Shanghai Spacecom has mentioned a target of 14,000. Over in Europe, the Eutelsat OneWeb constellation numbers 648 satellites, with Gen2 mega-scale rollout still in consultation. And there are more…

Google Preferred Source

Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News, or add us as a preferred source, to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.

Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • urn66
    Hi. Chinese person here. Nicolls is correct, and his neutral, fact-oriented approach is welcome.
    Nicolls emphasized that near-misses like this will continue to happen. “ Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators,” claimed the Starlink VP. “This needs to change.” Indeed, change is required to prevent the near-miss news, bad as it is, from taking a tragic twist.
    But the problem goes deeper. For decades, the US has been hostile to China in space, even as it cooperated with Russia on ISS; in fact, the USA vetoed Chinese participation, effectively, bootstrapping the current Chinese space agency program. It then doubled-down on the Sinophobia with the Wolf Amendment, banning NASA scientists and engineers from any contact with Chinese peers without bureaucratic approval.

    This creates a problem productively collaborating as Nicolls suggests. Technically, he proposes walking around these roadblocks suggesting "operators" - such as Starlink and Chinese/other counterparts - do the collaboration, but given the current USA climate hostile to Chinese, I seriously doubt this could be done without triggering the Senate Select Committee on CCP, the bipartisan witch-hunting arm of the US Congress tasked with political posturing and social media campaigns.

    So I doubt such collaboration in everyone's interest could happen short of an accident that triggers a war of words followed by a possible solution.

    Nicolls is correct in stating this problem will only get worse.
    Reply
  • _Shatta_AD_
    Kessler Syndrome is technically in progress with debris causing havoc for satellites and space-stations alike. It just starting off really really slow to the point where it almost seem avoidable for the time being but the massive increase in orbital traffic will exponentially speed up the potential for collision between say debris and satellite, leading to the next link in the chain.
    What the industry really need to focus on is debris collection and removal technology such as using plasma lasers to incinerate tiny pieces or putting durable shields directly in the paths of the debris so they could vaporize themselves on impact.
    Reply