Story highlights
Chinese satellite on course to collide with an American satellite prompted the former to take a step it had never taken before. NASA said it was a cause for celebration since this was the first time that China observed a conjunction and prevented it from happening.
China reached out to NASA to inform them about an accident that could occur in space between their satellites. In a first, the Chinese National Space Agency told scientists at the American space agency that they will be making a manoeuvre to prevent a possible collision, according to a space sustainability official. Alvin Drew, director for NASA Space Sustainability, said during a plenary session at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney that in the past, every time there was a conj…
Story highlights
Chinese satellite on course to collide with an American satellite prompted the former to take a step it had never taken before. NASA said it was a cause for celebration since this was the first time that China observed a conjunction and prevented it from happening.
China reached out to NASA to inform them about an accident that could occur in space between their satellites. In a first, the Chinese National Space Agency told scientists at the American space agency that they will be making a manoeuvre to prevent a possible collision, according to a space sustainability official. Alvin Drew, director for NASA Space Sustainability, said during a plenary session at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Sydney that in the past, every time there was a conjunction, NASA sent a note to the Chinese saying, “We think we’re going to run into you. You hold still, we’ll manoeuvre around you.” But on October 1, the opposite happened, and the Chinese informed them about a possible collision, Space.com reported. The Chinese National Space Agency reached out to us and said, “We see a conjunction amongst our satellites. We recommend you hold still. We’ll do the manoeuvre,” and that’s the first time that’s ever happened, Drew said.
China has been pursuing its space ambitions at a fast pace. It plans to land on the Moon and even retrieve samples from Mars. Its reaching out to NASA to inform them of an impending collision shows that it has reached a stage where its situational awareness has increased, and it can flag conjunctions and fix the problem.
The number of satellites in orbit has been increasing consistently. SpaceX has been placing hundreds of commercial satellites as part of the Starlink constellation, while China is building the Guowang and Thousand Sails megaconstellations. In a 2022 space white paper, China outlined its plans for space development from 2021 to 2026. This growth has created the need for more satellite operators who can watch for satellites that are on a collision course and send alerts to avoid a catastrophic situation in space. Notably, space debris has become a massive problem in recent years, and such events can exacerbate the problem. China also stated that dealing with space junk is a priority and it is working to remove it.
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