Elon Musk accused of disrupting China in space

Yet named Time magazine’s 2021 personality of the year, Elon Musk does not only have fans. The billionaire came under fire on Chinese social media Tuesday after two of his satellites narrowly missed colliding with the Chinese space station, Beijing said. The richest man in the world is well known in China for his Tesla electric cars. But his space exploration company SpaceX is now earning him the resentment of Internet users.

According to a document sent in early December by China to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna, the Chinese space station Tiangong had to carry out evasive maneuvers twice, in July and October in order to avoid “an encounter” with SpaceX gear. The Chinese space agency had to react “to ensure the safety and survival of astronauts in orbit”Beijing added.

SpaceX did not react to this information on Tuesday, which displeased Chinese Internet users. “Prepare to boycott Tesla”, launched a user of the social network Weibo, under a hashtag seen more than 87 million times. “There’s no shortage of irony: the Chinese buy Tesla’s, give Musk money to launch (satellites) and throw them at the Chinese space station,” another mocked. The Chinese market is crucial for the multibillionaire. Tesla sells about a quarter of its production to China and has a factory in Shanghai. But the automaker has come under heavy criticism in recent months over accidents and data protection concerns.

In space, SpaceX launched a constellation of more than 1,500 satellites, Starlink, intended to bring a connection to Internet everywhere in the world. This constellation has notably increased the circulation of objects in space.“We have seen an increase in the number of collision risks since the start of the Starlink deployment”, commented to AFP Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.

For its part, China has launched this year the main module of its space station Tiangong (the “heavenly palace”), whose construction is to be completed next year. Two crews of three astronauts have followed one another since last June.