SpaceX claims close approach to Starlink satellite by payload from Chinese launch

WASHINGTON — A reported close approach between a Starlink satellite and a recently launched Chinese spacecraft highlights the challenges of coordinating spacecraft operations and verifying potential close calls in orbit.

In a statement posted on social media late Dec. 12, Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, said a satellite launched on a Kinetica-1 rocket from China two days earlier passed within 200 meters of a Starlink satellite.

“As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed” for the launch, he said.

CAS Space, the Chinese company that operates the Kinetica-1 rocket, said in a response that it was looking into the incident and that its missions “select their launch windows using the ground-based space awareness system to avoid collisions with known satellites/debris.” The company later said the close approach occurred nearly 48 hours after payload separation, long after its responsibilities for the launch had ended.

Neither SpaceX nor CAS Space provided additional details about the reported close approach. Analysis of orbital elements by Jonathan McDowell found that the Starlink satellite cited by Nicolls passed close to one of the nine satellites around 1:42 a.m. Eastern on Dec. 12, but that information alone does not provide sufficient precision to determine how close the spacecraft came to one another.

The satellite from the Chinese launch has yet to be identified and is listed only as “Object J” with the NORAD identification number 67001 in the Space-Track database. The launch included six satellites for Chinese companies and organizations, as well as science and educational satellites from Egypt, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates.

Commercial firms that provide space situational awareness services have not publicly confirmed SpaceX’s account. A spokesperson for LeoLabs, which operates a network of radars tracking objects in low Earth orbit, told SpaceNews on Dec. 13 that it could not provide information about the close approach. COMSPOC, another SSA provider, said Dec. 14 it did not have immediate information. Slingshot Aerospace did not respond to a request for comment.

The incident underscores growing challenges in coordinating launches and spacecraft maneuvers as the number of active satellites and debris objects increases. Nicolls, in a separate post, called on satellite operators to share ephemeris data on SpaceX’s platform to allow screening for potential conjunctions.

The incident follows signs of increased willingness by China to coordinate satellite maneuvers with Western operators. At the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney on Oct. 2, NASA space sustainability director Alvin Drew said the agency had heard from the China National Space Administration the day before about a potential conjunction, with CNSA indicating it would maneuver to avoid a collision.

That marked a departure from previous events in which NASA notified China of potential close approaches but received no response. “It’s the first time we’re actually getting two-way communication between these two public space operators,” Drew said.

Others at the conference cited additional evidence of improved communication on space safety issues between Chinese and Western operators, including SpaceX and Eutelsat, which operates the OneWeb constellation. Drew suggested that was evidence of a “signal coming from someone in China” permitting such coordination.

CAS Space said it would work with the operators of the satellites from its launch to understand what happened. “This calls for re-establishing collaborations between the two New Space ecosystems,” the company said.

“We appreciate the responsiveness and look forward to engaging in coordination for future launches,” Nicolls replied. “Establishing data sharing between all satellite operators is critical.”