THE EUROPEAN Space Agency has announced narrowly avoiding a collision with a SpaceX Starlink satellite.

Elon Musk's new Starlink satellites have already sparked concern over increased space junk but it seems the ESA is now worried about them disrupting its work.

This morning, @ESA's #Aeolus Earth observation satellite fired its thrusters, moving it off a collision course with a @SpaceX satellite in their #Starlink constellation pic.twitter.com/bn2GHnSoFI — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) September 2, 2019

The space agency tweeted: "For the first time ever, ESA has performed a 'collision avoidance manoeuvre' to protect one of its satellites from colliding with a 'mega constellation'#SpaceTraffic".

Starlink is a satellite project led by billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Musk intends to put 12,000 satellites into the Earth's orbit so they can provide cheap WiFi to the whole world.

However, his plans have been met with some criticism, including concerns that humanity could be trapped on Earth by too much space junk in Earth's orbit.

2 Space junk threatens to clog up Earth's orbit (artist's impression) Credit: Science Photo Library/ Corbis

The ESA identified the Starlink satellite in question as Starlink 44.

Starlink 44 is in a much lower orbit than most of the other 60 satellites that SpaceX sent up back in May.

The ESA explained in several tweets how it had to manoeuvre its Aeolus Earth observation satellite out of the way.

One of the tweets stated: "Experts in our #SpaceDebris team calculated the risk of collision between these two active satellites, determining the safest option for #Aeolus would be to increase its altitude and pass over the @SpaceX satellite."

The space agency also warned that as proposed mega-constellations take their place in the Earth's orbit "today's 'manual' collision avoidance process will become impossible."

However, some experts think there was actually a low probability of collision as the satellites were predicted to come within about four kilometres of each other.

The ESA has said that it will be depending more on artificial intelligence to decide whether and how it should perform a satellite manoeuvre in the future.

SpaceX has already said that its satellites have been programmed to automatically avoid space debris.

2 60 satellites were sent up in a Falcon rocket in May Credit: Elon Musk/Twitter

What is Starlink? Here's what you need to know about Elon Musk's satellites... Starlink is a satellite project led by billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

Musk intends to put 12,000 satellites into the Earth's orbit so they can provide cheap WiFi to the whole world

SpaceX also intends to sell satellites for military, scientific and exploratory purposes

60 of the Starlink satellites have been sent up to Space so far

The satellites are being launched on top of unmanned Falcon 9 rockets

How they will affect the night sky is causing concern as they look brighter than expected

It will take at least 12 trips to take all of the satellites into Space and they will be staggered at different heights above the Earth

Video shows trail of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites passing over the Netherlands hours after launch

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Are you concerned about space junk? Let us know in the comments...

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