What just happened? Not for the first time, the increasing number of satellites in low Earth orbit has resulted in a near-miss. The latest incident involved a SpaceX internet satellite that avoided a Chinese spacecraft by just 200 meters (656 feet). Following the close encounter, a Starlink exec has called for increased coordination between satellite operators.
On December 12, one of the nine spacecraft launched atop a Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket from commercial space company CAS Space almost collided with a SpaceX satellite.
Michael Nicolls, a vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, wrote, "As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200 meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude."
"Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators – this needs to change," Nicolls added.
When satellite operators do not share ephemeris for their satellites, dangerously close approaches can occur in space. A few days ago, 9 satellites were deployed from a launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Northwestern China. As far as we know, no coordination or…
– Michael Nicolls (@michaelnicollsx) December 13, 2025
The 100-foot-tall Kinetica 1 rocket launched on December 9 from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Its launch load consisted of six Chinese multifunctional satellites, an Earth-observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates, a scientific satellite for Egypt, and an educational satellite for Nepal, according to China Daily. Nicolls did not specify which of these satellites was the one that almost hit the SpaceX spacecraft.
Astronomer and satellite tracking expert Jonathan McDowell said the near-miss occurred at around 1:42 am EST Friday, December 12 over the eastern Pacific Ocean.
CAS Space said it was gathering more details. The company added that its launch windows are selected using the ground-based space awareness system to avoid collisions with known satellites/debris.
CAS added that if confirmed, the incident occurred nearly 48 hours after payload separation – long after the launch mission had concluded.
"CAS Space will coordinate with satellite operators to proceed. This calls for re-establishing collaborations between the two New Space ecosystems," the Chinese launch provider said.
If confirmed, this incident occurred nearly 48 hours after payload separation, by which time the launch mission had long concluded. CAS Space will coordinate with satellite operators to proceed. This calls for re-establishing collaborations between the two New Space ecosystems. https://t.co/bsuFLeguxo
– CAS Space (@cas_space) December 13, 2025
McDowell said CAS' response was "reasonable."
There are around 13,000 satellites in Earth orbit, almost four times more than the 3,400 spacecraft that were there in 2020. Around 9,300 of these satellites belong to SpaceX.
This isn't the first time a SpaceX satellite has come close to hitting a Chinese spacecraft. In 2021, China complained to the UN over claims that SpaceX Starlink satellites had almost crashed into its space station twice over the past year.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted at the time that the US space station has on several occasions over the past ten years had to dodge pieces from the Chinese military anti-satellite test of 2007.
In July, the space industry warned reducing support for the Office of Space Commerce and its TraCSS program would endanger both commercial and government satellites, increase operational costs, and potentially drive American space businesses to relocate overseas.
SpaceX says a near-collision with Chinese satellite shows how crowded orbit has become
But as far as I know they're currently allowed 12k satellites while currently requesting 30-50k of the FCC and ITU.
