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Worldbuilding

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  • $\begingroup$ This could even be a mysterious alien craft or a wreck a la The Flying Dutchman. But this would be a plotline in itself, which the OP may or may not want. $\endgroup$
    – user3106
    Commented Dec 15, 2016 at 12:17
  • $\begingroup$ Spacecraft in orbit move at several kilometers per second. If a safe distance is 100x the maximum dimension of either spacecraft, which in turn is 50 meters once in orbit, that's 5000 meters or less than a second's travel distance. (Remmeber that both are moving at similar velocities.) And even if a several-minute delay was required, you wouldn't be operating close enough to the limitations of the launch window for your spacecraft that this is a problem in the first place, because then any problem could completely derail your travel plans. $\endgroup$
    – user
    Commented Dec 15, 2016 at 15:06
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    $\begingroup$ If the spacecraft suddenly exploded (you never know, stuff does have a tendency to explode and this would likely not be something well designed against it if it was not done legally), the shrapnel could fly out at speeds of 1km/s or more, and if the intersection would be a distance away (several minutes after launch being the potential intersection time), it would not be adviseable to launch due to the large uncertainty (+/-several hundred kilometers) as to where the shrapnel might be when your spaceship gets there. Or it might have already exploded, making a cloud hundreds of kilometers wide. $\endgroup$
    – Jarred Allen
    Commented Dec 15, 2016 at 23:44