The near miss happened at approximately 1:30 a.m. LeoLabs reported that the two satellites came within a mere 66 feet (20 meters) of each other.
Too close for comfort.
We monitor over 20,000 objects in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) using our 10 phased array radars worldwide.
A depiction of NASA’s TIMED satellite, which narrowly missed colliding with the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 satellite.Image: NASA
We can identify and update the orbital trajectories of all of these objects several times a day.
This event is indicative of an increasing number of near misses in LEO, McKnight said.
To date, only once has a satellite smashed into another.
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