In low Earth orbit, a dangerous approach was recorded between a Starlink satellite and a recently launched Chinese spacecraft.
The incident was reported by Starlink Engineering Vice President Michael Nicholls. He notes that after the launch of nine satellites from the Jiuquan Cosmodrome, the operator did not coordinate orbital parameters or collision avoidance procedures. According to SpaceX, one of the Chinese vehicles approached the STARLINK-6079 satellite at an altitude of about 560 km, and the minimum distance between the objects was about 200 meters, which required taking measures to prevent a collision.
Starlink satellites are equipped with automatic evasion systems, but their effective operation requires accurate data on the orbits of other objects; in the first six months of 2025 alone, Starlink vehicles performed more than 144,000 maneuvers to avoid potential collisions. At the same time, China’s CAS Space, which launched nine satellites from Jiuquan, said it relies on ground-based space control systems to select launch windows and avoid known objects and debris. At the same time, CAS Space noted that the incident occurred almost 48 hours after payload separation, when ground control maneuvers could no longer affect the rendezvous, which SpaceX cites as a key risk factor.
There are now more than 24,000 objects in low Earth orbit – satellites and space debris, which is 76% more than in 2019. By the end of the decade, their number could grow to 70,000 due to global satellite Internet projects in the United States, China, and Europe. This density poses a real threat of chain collisions, known as Kessler syndrome, when a single impact can generate hundreds of new pieces of debris. To avoid a catastrophe, engineers are constantly improving automatic evasion systems, trajectory prediction algorithms, and launch coordination methods, as the orbit is becoming so “crowded” that even a small satellite can become a threat to the entire space highway.
The Starlink incident shows how critical coordination becomes in densely populated low earth orbit. As the number of satellites and space debris increases, such convergences may become more frequent, and effective evasion systems and data sharing between operators become a key factor in space safety.
