European satellite in near collision with SpaceX Starlink craft
Source: Agence France-Presse
European satellite in near collision with Elon Musk SpaceX craft
Agence France-Presse
Tue 3 Sep 2019 18.28 BST Last modified on Tue 3 Sep 2019 18.35 BST
The European Space Agency has said it altered the trajectory of one of its observation satellites to avoid a collision with a craft operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
“@ESA’s Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their Starlink constellation,” the agency’s Twitter account said.
It said its scientists decided the safest plan of action was to boost the altitude of the craft, adding that the manoeuvre on Monday was “first time ever” it had acted to avoid an active satellite.
“The vast majority of ESA avoidance manoeuvres are the result of dead satellites or fragments from previous collisions,” it said.
A SpaceX spokesperson said a bug in its on-call operating system prevented the team from seeing that the risk of a collision with the ESA craft may have increased.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/sep/03/european-satellite-in-near-collision-with-elon-musk-spacex-craft
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