This was the crux of the story.
Why? The Alert Itself Was the Weapon: SpaceX maintained a 0.401 km (0.711 km Oct 16) public GP collision alert via STARLINK-35856 (67013) despite holding internal v3/v4 forecasts 4.80x to 5.00x wider (1.925 to 2.003 km) and withholding autonomous Starlink clearance (M_Starlink = 0, W_X36 = 1, W_COSMOS = 0), legally freezing X36 under David Goldman’s 2023 FCC Condition 16 (DA 23-797).
In other words, the Starlink satellite did not cancel the near-miss alert, even though their own calculations showed that it would pass at a distance of about 2 km instead of 400 m. It’s not abnormal to have congestion, but there are a bit too many coincidences considering the other Starlink/shield activity at the same time. The Cosmos orbit plan was indeed prepared well in advance, and the orbit change began in September, timing it to coincide with this Starlink and Iceye encounter on October 26.
And considering that Stargaze was the only entity capable of monitoring and warning about a foreign satellite at that time, yet they failed to do so.