Andrew Wade

ESA satellite narrowly avoids SpaceX collision

News

A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite has fired its thrusters to avoid a collision with a SpaceX satellite that the US company declined to move.  

Announcing the news via a thread on Twitter, ESA explained how its Aeolus Earth observation satellite performed a manoeuvre to take it off a potential collision course with one of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. Aeolus has been in orbit since August 2018, while the Starlink satellite was one of 60 launched aboard a Falcon 9 in May 2019. According to Forbes, SpaceX refused to move its spacecraft - dubbed Starlink 44 - forcing ESA into evasive action for Aeolus. 

https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/1168533241873260544

SpaceX’s Starlink programme is intended to provide global broadband coverage and may eventually be comprised of up to 12,000 low earth orbit satellites. ESA says this is the first time it has had to perform such a manoeuvre in order to avoid a collision with a so-called ‘mega constellation’ satellite.  

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