By Dan Robitzski
Two things can be true: Space is increasingly congested and contested. Without proper coordination, space could be increasingly less useful for everyone. The worsening congestion and hostility between the United States and China, today's two great space powers, makes tension worse. That is, of course, unless China and the U.S. start to talk and coordinate space activity.
Well, that may be happening. Last week, Alvin Drew, NASA Space Sustainability director and former astronaut, announced that the China National Space Agency (CNSA) contacted NASA about avoiding a potential on-orbit collision.
As Debra Werner wrote, it's a significant "first" of China beginning to share information with western space powers "after decades of operating satellites alongside one another with very little communication."
Drew said "we are seeing the first steps" toward much-needed real-time information sharing across space agencies.
Debra shared just how little is known - and how voracious the appetite is to learn more - about how China approaches these issues:
"At IAC, there was great interest in China's approach to space traffic coordination because China, one of the most prolific launch nations, is not in regular contact with many of the national and international space traffic monitoring organizations in the United States and Europe. (Chinese agencies don't say space traffic management because it implies treaties. Instead, Chinese agencies call for space traffic coordination, which implies operator to operator communication.)
"I went to a session on space debris mitigation and as soon as people realized one of the speakers represented China, nearly all the questions were directed toward that person. Does China plan for a 25-year deorbit of satellites? Yuqi Shen, Beijing Institute of Technology PhD candidate, said yes. What about the rocket bodies that will be left above 800 kilometers by the Thousand Sails megaconstellation? That question was not answered.
"During an earlier on-stage interview with Zhigang Bian, the vice administrator of CNSA, International Astronautical Federation president Clay Mowry asked whether China requires satellites to maintain fuel to deorbit at the end of their lives. Bian said yes. This just shows how little is known about China's approach to preventing space debris."
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