Last week, a newly launched Chinese satellite made a high-risk close approach to a satellite in the Starlink constellation in low-Earth orbit. The closest distance was only about a few hundred meters. It was regarded as a thrilling space incident that almost resulted in a collision. SpaceX blames other operators for not sharing precise orbit data, highlighting the rising risks of space traffic management amid the surge in the number of satellites in low-Earth orbit.
Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink Engineering, posted on social platforms that a few days ago, China's Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center launched nine satellites into orbit at one time, but the relevant operators did not coordinate and "collision avoidance" communicate with the existing satellites in orbit. According to him, one of the newly deployed satellites had a close rendezvous of about 200 meters with a Starlink satellite numbered STARLINK-6079 (56120) at an altitude of about 560 kilometers. He warned that when satellite operators do not share orbital parameters such as ephemeris, similar dangerous close events may occur.
Starlink satellites have automatic avoidance capabilities and can adjust their orbits to evade when other known objects are detected on the path, but only if the potential collision target is within the visible range of the system. According to data from the first half of this year, Starlink spacecraft have performed more than 144,000 such maneuvers in the first six months of 2025 alone, showing that on-orbit collision avoidance operations have become an important part of daily operations.
The satellite involved in this incident was launched by Chinese commercial aerospace company CAS Space. The company later responded on social platforms that the team was contacting relevant parties for details and emphasized that all launch missions will rely on the ground space situational awareness system to select launch windows to avoid known satellites and debris, calling this a mandatory procedure. The company later added that the so-called close approach occurred nearly 48 hours after the payload separation, by which time the launch mission itself had long ended, a statement seen as an attempt to distance itself from responsibility for the accident.
Public monitoring data shows that there are currently more than 24,000 satellites, debris and other objects being tracked in low-Earth orbit, an increase of approximately 76% compared to 2019. Research predicts that by the end of this decade, the number of satellites operating in low Earth orbit may climb to about 70,000, most of which will come from satellite internet and other mega-constellation projects deployed by governments and commercial entities in the United States, China, Europe and other countries.
The news of this “miss” has heightened concerns about the long-term sustainability of low-Earth orbit. Theoretically, a real collision may trigger the so-called "Kessler syndrome" - a large amount of debris produced by the collision will further hit other satellites, triggering a chain reaction that may eventually fill the entire low-Earth orbit with high-speed debris, making it difficult to use safely. As the density of low-orbit spacecraft continues to increase, how to establish a more transparent and mandatory orbital data sharing and collision avoidance coordination mechanism at the international level is becoming an increasingly urgent issue in the field of space security.