Tuesday, September 3, 2019

SpaceX Starlink Satellite Has Near Miss

One of the SpaceX high speed, Starlink communications satellites nearly ran over a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite on Monday, and only avoided disaster after the ESA performed a "collision avoidance maneuver" to steer out of the way of one of those Starlink satellites, the ESA said today. The ESA said this is the first time it has had to initiate those maneuvers. In a release, the ESA said that--as the number of satellites "dramatically increases" the need for better traffic avoidance rules among satellites. Currently, the company says that avoidance procedures between satellites right now are "largely manual and ad hoc". SpaceX has already launched 60 satellites that are part of its Starlink constellation, but has plans to launch over 1,500 of those satellites into space. According to the ESA, there is a need to automate traffic rules and communications for collision avoidance; the company said the current satellite avoidance procedures are "done through exchanging emails". Image: ESA Aeolus Earth observation satellite.