SpaceX Warns of Near Starlink Collision With Chinese Satellites — Space Safety Fears

A Chinese spacecraft came within 200 meters of the Starlink satellite, Starlink-6079 (56120).

An announcement by SpaceX on 13 December 2025 revealed that one of its Starlink satellites nearly collided with a spacecraft launched from a Chinese rocket on Tuesday, 9 December. The spacecraft was one of 9 satellites deployed from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Northwestern China.

SpaceX Vice President of Starlink Engineering Michael Nicolls, attributing the near collision to the 'lack of coordination between satellite operators,' said in a post, 'As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200 meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude,'

'Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators - this needs to change,' he goes on to say. Futurism reports six multifunctional satellites were transported in the Kinetica 1 rocket, which launched from the Gobi Desert on 9 December.

China's Response

Guangzhou-based space company CAS Space, the firm operating the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, responded in a tweet, 'Our team is currently in contact for more details. All CAS Space launches select their launch windows using the ground-based space awareness system to avoid collisions with known satellites/debris.'

Furthermore, CAS Space states that it will continue efforts to determine the specifics and will offer assistance as the Launch Service Provider.

In a follow-up tweet, CAS says, 'If confirmed, this incident occurred nearly 48 hours after payload separation, by which time the launch mission had long concluded. CAS Space will coordinate with satellite operators to proceed. This calls for re-establishing collaborations between the two New Space ecosystems.'

Michael Nicolls can be seen commenting on this statement, saying, 'We appreciate the responsiveness and look forward to engaging in coordination for future launches. Establishing data sharing between all satellite operators is critical.'

No further updates were posted following the last tweet.

Better Space Traffic Management

The number of satellites orbiting the Earth increases every year, challenging space traffic management systems (STM) in place, without which NASA says will cause uncontrolled growth and 'severely affect future space operations.' NASA also states, 'greater coordination becomes necessary to ensure these spacecraft are able to operate safely while avoiding physical collisions, radio-frequency interference, and other hazards.'

In 2021, Futurism reported that Starlink satellites were responsible for over 1,000 near-crashes in orbit each week. At the time of writing, this number was expected to grow as SpaceX continues to add satellites, making SpaceX 'a bigger threat to itself than any other spaceflight company or space agency.'

In 2021, Beijing cited close encounters between SpaceX's satellites and its Tiangong space station, putting its astronauts' lives at risk. As such, Tiangong was forced to manoeuvre to avoid collision.

This prompted Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian to announce that the United States 'ignores its obligations under international treaties, posing a serious threat to the lives and safety of astronauts,' in a report by Copernical.

Recent events demonstrate that the firms have yet to deploy consistent coordinating measures among themselves, and SpaceX's disclosure of the near-collision to the world may be an attempt to raise awareness of the reforms and in-orbit safety protocols in place.