Soviet satellite and a fragment of the Chinese rocket cross without colliding over Antarctica

“There is no indication of a collision. CZ-4C R / B passed over LeoLabs’ Kiwi Space Radar 10 minutes after the TCA . Our data shows only a single object, as we’d hoped with no signs of debris,” the company posted to its Twitter account.

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No indication of collision. 👍

CZ-4C R/B passed over LeoLabs Kiwi Space Radar 10 minutes after TCA. Our data shows only a single object as we'd hoped, with no signs of debris.

We will follow up in the coming days on Medium with a full in-depth risk assessment of this event!

— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) October 16, 2020

Initially, LeoLabs rated as high the risk of collision of both objects, which were to cross at 00:56 GMT this Friday about 991 kilometers above Antarctica. Subsequent calculations, however, lowered the probability of a collision to 10 percent and estimated the minimum distance between the two after the TCA at 12 meters.