China accuses Elon Musk of causing space discord with Starlink constellation

According to Chinese authorities, satellites belonging to Elon Musk failed to collide with the Chinese space station Tiangong, forcing it to perform an evasive maneuver.

SpaceX’s Starlink constellation satellites, space heaters? Yes according to Beijing. According to the accusations of the Chinese authorities, two of these devices would have narrowly collided with the Chinese space station Tiangong. According to a document sent in early December by Beijing to the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs in Vienna, the space shock would have been avoided only through an avoidance maneuver.

Two incidents a few months apart

This type of incident would have occurred twice, in July and October. The Chinese space agency accuses SpaceX of having endangered “the safety and survival” of its astronauts, the document said.

“This poses a serious threat to the life and safety of Chinese astronauts”, criticized diplomacy spokesman Zhao Lijian to the press.

SpaceX had not commented to deny or confirm this accusation. Elon Musk also didn’t react on Twitter like he usually does. But on Chinese social networks, Internet users are unleashed against the one who was elected by Time Magazine personality of the year 2021. On Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, the hashtag “Prepare to boycott Tesla” was published near 90 million times.

“It is not lacking in irony: the Chinese buy Tesla, giving money to Musk so that he launches (satellites) and throws them against the Chinese space station”, thunders a Chinese Internet user.

A constellation of more than 1,500 satellites

In China, Elon Musk is best known for his electric cars. Tesla sells around a quarter of its production domestically and has a plant in Shanghai. With Starlink, a constellation of more than 1500 satellites, Elon Musk wants to bring an Internet connection to the four corners of the globe. This constellation has significantly increased the circulation of objects in space, which does not only worry China.

“We have seen an increase in the number of collision risks since the start of the Starlink deployment,” commented AFP Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States.

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