Starlink's plan to avoid orbital near-misses: Ephemeris sharing

SpaceX has acknowledged the need for satellite operators to collaborate to avoid collisions and has taken the unusual step of sharing imagery showing how close spacecraft are coming to each other. The company has called on other operators to share their satellites' ephemeris (a set of parameters describing the position and velocity of a spacecraft over time) to facilitate timely avoidance maneuvers. "In 2026," the company wrote, "Starlink encountered conjunctions with about 650 unique maneuvering third-party satellites, with only about half of them actually sharing ephemeris. "Some operators don't share ephemeris out of a concern that sharing upcoming maneuvers gives away proprietary information. In other circumstances, operators are willing to share data, but are unable to receive permission from the government to do so. "Such policies are counterproductive, and largely only serve to create preventable collision risk between satellites." …