SpaceX satellites come into close contact with other objects several hundred times a day
SpaceX satellites are entering the already crowded space around the Earth. It turns out that every week they are on the verge of a collision. This means an average of 200 to 250 close contacts per day. According to the European Space Agency, there are currently 7,520 satellites in near-Earth space that collide with other satellites in their orbits. Such a “close encounter” occurs when both objects are located at a distance of a kilometer from each other.
Due to the rapidly growing number of SpaceX satellites, the number of such close encounters has increased dramatically during the launch of the Starlink program and currently stands at 1,600 each week. Moreover, SpaceX is just starting to release Starlink satellites, so this problem will only worsen, since 12 thousand objects of this type are expected to eventually be in outer space.
