China Cites 2 SpaceX Near Hits; OneWeb's Wyler Says Maybe Control Lost

That the China Space Station twice this year had to do collision avoidance maneuvers because of too-close SpaceX Starlink satellites seems to point to SpaceX having lost control of the satellites, which "wasn't intentional," OneWeb founder Greg Wyler tweeted Monday. In a memo dated Dec. 3 to the U.N. secretary general, China said the space station had to maneuver once July 1 and twice Oct. 21. It said Starlink-2305 "was continuously manoeuvring" on the 21st, and "the manoeuvre strategy was unknown and orbital errors were hard to be assessed," so the second maneuver was to "ensure the safety and lives of in-orbit astronauts." It asked the secretary general to remind Outer Space Treaty signatories that they bear responsibility for national activities in outer space. SpaceX and the FCC didn't comment.