Here’s one for all you SpaceX haters out there (and I know there are a lot, because many of them send me messages!). Monday, the ESA (European Space Agency) actually had to remotely maneuver one of its satellites out of the way of an oncoming SpaceX satellite that seemed well on its way to hitting the ESA one!

“A SpaceX spokesperson said a bug in its on-call operating system prevented the team from seeing that the risk of a collision with the ESA craft may have increased. ‘Had the Starlink operator seen the correspondence, we would have coordinated with ESA to determine best approach with their continuing with their manoeuvre or our performing a manoeuvre,’ the spokesperson said.”

I can already hear the Musk haters talking about letting “the professionals” do it. However, to put things in perspective, there are some 20,000 private craft orbiting the earth right now, so it’s probably unfair to place all the blame on SpaceX. Personally, I applaud their efforts in trying to accomplish things many states no longer do or can. Dream big!

Brief article here: “ESA re-routes satellite to avoid SpaceX collision risk.”