China calls NASA to avoid a collision in space

It's a remarkable story because it's being reported as the first time this has ever happened.  

The Chinese space agency has reportedly contacted NASA for the first time to avoid a collision in orbit. 

 The CNSA message read:

“We would like to recommend you hold still and we’ll do the maneuver,” Alvin Drew, NASA Space Sustainability director and former astronaut, said Oct. 2 at a panel on space sustainability at the International Astronautical Congress here. “That’s the first time that has ever happened.” 

China is one of the most prolific launching states, and their beginning to share data like this is a major step in cooperation.  

“I know for a fact that OneWeb has been contacted by a Chinese constellation to talk about where they’re going,” Darren McKnight, senior technical fellow for LeoLabs, said during a Sept. 29 technical session on space sustainability. “SpaceX also has been contacted by a Chinese constellation.”

Recent action by CNSA and commercial satellite operators to discuss spacecraft maneuvers “tells me there is a coordinated signal coming from someone in China,” Drew said. “Somebody is saying, ‘Yes, you can talk to them. Yes, you can coordinate with them.’” 

Honestly, I think everyone involved has long thought all space programs should coordinate with each other to minimize the chances of bad things happening.  It just doesn't seem to have moved beyond that first impression level.  

The US Commerce Department is working on a system, dubbed Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), to track spacecraft in orbit and help deconflict potential conjunctions. 

However, it’s only as good as the data fed into the system. And missing self-reported information from one of the major operators in space—if China is unwilling to share information—is likely to leave those using the program with at least a few blind spots. 

Part of the reasoning could be that China is communicating more openly about what they're doing, from the 13,000-satellite Guowang internet-of-things constellation to the 15,000-satellite Qianfan or Thousand Sails broadband constellation.   They're going to be sharing the near-Earth orbit space with SpaceX's Starlink constellation which could include 42,000 satellites while even Amazon intends to send over 3,200 broadband satellites into Project Kuiper.

A Long March 8 lifts off from Hainan commercial spaceport March 11, 2025, carrying 18 Qianfan (Thousand Sails) satellites. Credit: CASC

“Although we’re making progress, for years our ability to communicate with the Chinese National Space Agency has been extremely crude,” Drew said. “When we had a conjunction, we would send a note to the Chinese saying that we think we’re going to run into you. Hold still, we’ll maneuver around you.”

Often there was no reply, Drew said. It was never even clear if the messages were received.

“Once we did maneuver both at the same time and fortunately we missed,” Drew said. “We’ve come a long way.”

It's interesting that in both messages, the first one from the Chinese in the second indented paragraph from the top and this last one here from the US sent the other side the same message.  “Hold still; we'll maneuver around you.”