Chinese Space Station Maneuvered to Avoid Collision with Starlink Satellites Written 3 January 2022
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Tianhe-1, the core module of China’s next space station. | Credit: SciNews; YouTube; framegrab
Space News reported that China “has informed the United Nations that its crewed space station twice maneuvered to avoid potential collisions with SpaceX Starlink satellites earlier this year.” A notification “dated Dec. 6 by China under Article V of the Outer Space Treaty stated that the Tianhe space station module conducted preventive collision avoidance due to close approaches by the Starlink-1095 (2020-001BK) and Starlink-2305 (2021-024N) satellites on July 1 and Oct. 21[,] respectively.” The two Starlink satellites had lowered their altitudes as part of deorbiting maneuvers carried out at the end of service life.
Full Story (Space News)