Maybe I am overthinking this, but it appears to me that all the reporting of the conjunctions involving Starlink satellites & the Chinese Space Station is forgetting that close approaches & avoidance manoeuvres are a normal part of space traffic management.
Even in environments with little to no debris (e.g. in Mars orbit) collision avoidance manoeuvres are performed. Perhaps not routinely, but they do occur.
Even with great surveillance and tracking in the future, and the most robust space traffic regulations, collision avoidance manoeuvres will be part of space operations. Avoidance manoeuvres are unavoidable.
Although I would hope for better communication in the future, how these occurrences were resolved is exactly how I would expect future occurrences to be resolved - with manoeuvres to reduce the risk.
This is not a sign of a growing #SpaceDebris problem, given that these events involved active spacecraft. It is, perhaps, a sign of congestion but as I have said, manoeuvres can be needed even when there are only a handful of spacecraft in orbit.
Nonetheless, the rapidly growing population of active spacecraft in orbit is having a disproportionate effect on the number of close approaches and manoeuvres. Each occurrence represents a non-zero risk of a collision & requires effort to mitigate.
Improving transparency & communication whilst reducing the complexity & burden involved will be important & vital steps if we are to maintain the safety of robotic & human spaceflight.
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