Chinese Spacecraft Got Disturbingly Close to Smashing Into a Starlink Satellite

Low-Earth orbit is getting a little crowded. As operators around the world launch more satellites and spacecraft each year, there is an urgent need to prevent collisions like the one a Starlink satellite narrowly avoided last week.

That close call followed the launch of a Chinese Kinetica 1 rocket on Tuesday, December 9, from the Jinquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. The rocket deployed nine satellites, one of which nearly crashed into a Starlink 350 miles (560 kilometers)…