In the last few days, Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by SpaceX, has made a claim that has caught the space sector’s attention. According to a CEO of the company, a recent launch of satellites from China almost provoked a crash in space with one of its satellites. Even though no issue happened, the distance between both were very small and it has concerned many people. So, let’s learn more about this situation and what Starlink has to say.
What Starlink said about the Chinese launch
Starlink states that a launch made from China provoked a risky situation in space. The information was shared by Michael Nicolls, who is the Vice President of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, in a public message.
According to what he explained, a few days ago 9 satellites were launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, which is located in the northwestern part of China. The issue, according to Starlink, wasn’t the launch itself, but what happened later…
Nicolls confirmed that, as far as Starlink knows, there wasn’t any coordination or previous communication with companies that already had satellites operating in that area of space. Because of this, one of the new satellites got too close to a Starlink satellite that was already in orbit.
A dangerous close approach in space
The most important point about this situation is the distance both satellites reached. According to Starlink, one of the recently launched satellites came within 200 meters of a Starlink satellite known as STARLINK-6079. This satellite was operating at an altitude of 560 kilometers above Earth.
To make it simple: in space, where objects move at great speed, 200 meters is an extremely short distance. Sure, there was no crash, but the close approach was close enough to consider it dangerous.
Starlink considered that if the conditions were slightly different, the result would have been very different and dangerous.
The lack of coordination between satellites
One of the main messages that Starlink says about this case is the lack of coordination between satellite operators. Michael Nicolls pointed out that, in his opinion, most of the risks when operating in space don’t come from technical failures, but from the different companies and countries that don’t communicate between them.
Nicolls emphasized that this kind of situation should not be happening. He stated that the lack of coordination between satellite operators increases the danger of accidents in space. He ended his message with a strong statement, saying that this situation needs to change. Through this, Starlink made it clear that it believes better communication and planning are required when satellites are launched into space.
The link to the China Daily report
In his message, Michael Nicolls added a link to a report published by China Daily, a Chinese news outlet. That report described a satellite launch carried out by CAS Space, which is a Chinese commercial space company.
By sharing this link, Nicolls suggested that the launch mentioned in the China Daily article was likely the source of the close approach with the Starlink satellite. However, the article does not include any response or comment from CAS Space or from Chinese authorities regarding Starlink’s claims.
So…
By speaking publicly about this really important event, the Starlink is drawing attention to a growing problem in space: many satellites are operating at the same time, and without proper coordination, risky situations can happen.
The message left is clear and simple. If satellite operators do not change how they work together, similar close approaches could happen again. This is why Starlink says that better coordination is not optional — it is necessary.