Orbital Deconfliction Rules

[ShadowArxxy]

Historically, there hasn't been any authoritative rule from NASA or the ESA regarding "deconfliction" of satellites at risk of collision. However, the informal consensus has been that the satellite which has been on orbit longer has right of way over the newer one, for the practical reason that an older satellite will be lower on maneuvering fuel.

SpaceX's flat refusal to alter the orbit of a new Starlink satellite in order to avoid collision with the ESA's Aeolus orbital observatory breaks this informal consensus, which makes it clear that binding rules now need to be put into place. It is also rather disturbing that even with the intersection of orbits known substantially in advance, SpaceX ignored all attempts at communicating over the issue.

Source: Forbes

Edit: Given that Starlink 44 was either one of the two being intentionally deorbited or one of the three that failed, its possible that SpaceX didn't want to admit on the record that they didn't have maneuvering control of the satellite. Those Starlinks are supposed to have autonomous collision avoidance, however. . .

 

[Flintsteel]

Elon Musk ignoring everything to do whatever the hell he wants? Color me surprised.

I will give the man credit for being willing to spend the money to shake up the launch industry, but the rest of his antics don't cut it. The real world doesn't work like silicon valley for a reason.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Well, this is interesting. SpaceX originally had no comment, but has now claimed that their refusal to communicate with ESA was due to a "glitch" in their internal messaging system which resulted in the ESA messages not getting forwarded to their satellite team after the initial message. SpaceX's statement that they weren't going to move their satellite was in response to the ESA's first e-mail, which was legit since at that point it was pretty much just an official heads up since the probability of collision was very low. The problem was that they (supposedly) accidentally roundfiled all of the ESA's subsequent messages as the probability of collision increased to the level that avoidance maneuvering actually was required.

Source: The Verge