Near-collision in space: satellites narrowly escape disaster. A near-miss in orbit could have increased the number of debris in Earth's orbit by 50 percent.
According to the European Space Agency Esa, there are around 11,500 satellites orbiting our planet, of which around 9,000 are still functional. The decommissioned Russian satellite and the active NASA satellite, both of which are not maneuverable, only missed each other by about 20 meters, Leo Labs on X said.