Home›Maneuver Tracker›Close Approaches›YAOGAN 21 ⟷ STARLINK-30610
HighCross-border
Final forecastFinal forecast, made minutes before the pass.
Closest approach10 Nov 202615:07 UTC
Relative speed13.70 km/sat the closest approach
Altitude481 kmlow Earth orbit
Last confirmed10 Nov15:06 UTC · final forecast

CN YAOGAN 21 and US STARLINK-30610 were predicted to reach a closest approach of 8.95 km at 2026-11-10 15:07 UTC, at a relative speed of 13.70 km/s. Final forecast, made minutes before the pass. This is a cross-border encounter between objects of different nations. Miss distance and time of closest approach are computed by propagating the latest published orbital elements for both objects, and each pass is re-checked every 20 minutes as new element sets are published. See the Satellite Maneuver Tracker for the live picture and space situational awareness for context.

Why it mattersBoth objects are catalogued as payloads. Screening continues as new element sets arrive; operators act on their own conjunction data.

The Two Objects

Dossiers from the satellite directory
YAOGAN 21Payload
NORAD 40143
CountryPRC
Launched2014-09-08
COSPAR2014-053A
Maneuver capableUnknown
NORAD 58082
CountryUS
Launched2023-10-18
COSPAR2023-160H
Maneuver capableUnknown

Where This Happens

Altitude context
DEBRIS BELT 700–1000 KM2006001,0001,5002,000 kmTHIS PASS · 481 KMISS 420Starlink 550

At 481 km this pass sits in low Earth orbit. Objects here stay up for decades: there is too little atmospheric drag to clean the band naturally. Why crowded bands matter →

History Between This Pair

5 predicted passes under 10 km
Pair history · YAOGAN 21 ⟷ STARLINK-30610
2026-11-13 16:113.15 km Live forecast12.91 km/s485 kmView →
2026-11-13 14:368.35 km Live forecast12.93 km/s485 kmView →
2026-11-13 13:029.63 km Withdrawn12.95 km/s485 kmView →
2026-11-10 15:078.95 km Final forecast13.70 km/s481 kmShown above
2026-11-10 11:128.22 km Withdrawn13.73 km/s485 kmView →

Repeat encounters are common for objects in near-intersecting orbital planes. Each pass is re-screened as fresh element sets arrive; "Final forecast" means the screening still predicted it within 45 minutes of its time, "Not re-confirmed" means later screening stopped finding it.

Forecast Record

Every figure published for the pass shown above, newest first. Nothing is overwritten: a withdrawn forecast keeps its figure, with the newer check beside it, and the best estimate after the pass is a row of its own.
Computed · figure · predicted time · orbit data · by
10 Nov 14:28 UTC8.95 km Forecast10 Nov 15:07 UTC10 Nov 09:24 UTCRe-check
10 Nov 13:33 UTC8.53 km Forecast10 Nov 15:07 UTC10 Nov 04:17 UTCRe-check
10 Nov 13:13 UTC9.72 km Forecast10 Nov 15:07 UTC10 Nov 04:17 UTCScreen

These Objects Elsewhere

Other screened approaches · 7 days
316 m11-09 02:35 UTC
YAOGAN 21STARLINK-4346
951 m11-08 02:53 UTC
YAOGAN 21STARLINK-32502
1.15 km11-07 03:00 UTC
YAOGAN 21STARLINK-35835

How These Numbers Are Computed

Miss distance and TCA come from propagating the latest published orbital elements for both objects and searching for the minimum separation over the screening window. Element sets carry kilometre-scale uncertainty, so figures here describe a close pass, not a collision prediction; a change in either object's published elements re-computes the pass automatically. What is a conjunction? → How conjunction assessment works →