European Space Agency Satellite Veers to Avoid SpaceX Collision
A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket, with a payload of 60 Starlink satellites, lifts off in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on May 23, 2019.
Photographer: John Raoux/APThis article is for subscribers only.
Three months after Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. launched the first set of what will be a broadband-providing constellation of satellites, other operators are already veering to keep their own spacecraft out of harm’s way.
The European Space Agency tweeted Monday that it fired the thrusters on its Earth observation satellite Aeolus to avoid a potential collision with one of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. The Musk-led company launched the first 60 of its satellites in May, getting a jump on fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com Inc., which is pursuing a similar endeavor called Project Kuiper.