China's Tianhe space station module dodged SpaceX Star satellites twice this year

[Admin]

Chinese officials filed a note with the United Nations stating that Star spacecraft had two close encounters with Tianhe this year, both of them occurring when astronauts were aboard the module.

China's Tianhe space station module dodged SpaceX Star satellites twice this year : Read more

 

[robinrowe]

Does this report make sense? China's space station orbits at an altitude of 280 miles. Starlink satellites orbit at 340 miles. Other than when crossing altitude during launch, how can they be less than 60 miles apart?

Are we to believe Tianhe is dodging Starlink satellites on their way into orbit above Tianhe? Are there Starlink satellites 60 miles off course?

Robin

 

[billslugg]

Starlink 1095 was in an orbit at 555 km but was deorbited, it crossed paths with the Chinese Space Station in June of 2021.

Starlink 2305 was initially in an orbit at 360 km but was gradually raised from Oct 15 thru Nov 16, 2021 to 555 km. It would have crossed paths with CSS on Oct 21, 2021.

 

[robinrowe]

Interesting, thank you for the update. Anyone know how near these near misses were? How close is too close?

It was reported that the International Space Station climbed to avoid a Chinese satellite passing within 1.2km:

The ISS just avoided a ‘piece of unknown space debris’

The astronauts on board were never in danger

www.theverge.com

International Space Station to Maneuver to Avoid Satellite Junk

The International Space Station will perform a brief maneuver on Wednesday to dodge a fragment of a defunct Chinese satellite, Russian space agency Roscosmos said. The station crewed by seven astronauts will climb 1,240 meters higher to avoid a close encounter with the fragment and will settle...

www.voanews.com