Low Earth orbit is quickly becoming an extremely crowded and high-risk space. At the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the American company SpaceX issued a sharp appeal to global operators for immediate and transparent sharing of data on the coordinates and planned maneuvers of their spacecraft. Without such coordination, the exploration and use of near space are facing a critical threat of chain collisions.
During the forum, SpaceX Senior Vice President Michael Nichols presented footage from onboard cameras of Starlink satellites. The recordings show dangerous approaches of foreign satellites at distances of only a few tens of meters - a negligible distance by space standards, which leaves almost no tolerance for reaction. SpaceX currently operates about two-thirds of all active satellites in low-Earth orbit with a fleet of 11,000 spacecraft, publicly disclosing their trajectories and speeds in real time. The main danger, however, comes from operators making sudden maneuvers without notifying other road users in advance.
While the detection and trajectory of space debris can be predicted with relative accuracy using modern computational models, the unexpected change in the course of an actively controlled satellite is the biggest unknown factor for orbital safety. In the past year alone, hundreds of risky approaches to Starlink spacecraft have been recorded. In some of these, incidents narrowly escaped after unannounced maneuvers by foreign satellites – a problem that is exacerbated by strict government restrictions on information exchange in some countries, as well as by neglect of good practices even by operators in the US and Europe.
With expectations that the number of satellites in orbit could reach half a million by the end of the decade, automated traffic management is an absolute must. Any potential collision not only destroys expensive infrastructure and disrupts global communications, but also generates thousands of new uncontrollable debris, threatening all future space missions. To prevent such a scenario, SpaceX is developing its open Stargaze initiative, providing data collected from its onboard sensors for free in the hope that the global space community will adopt common safety rules.