After the Chinese Space Station had to take precautionary steps to avoid collision with SpaceX satellites, several Chinese citizens took to social media to protest against Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
SpaceX Satellites Nearly Hit Chinese Space Station
According to a statement provided by China earlier this month to the United Nations' space agency, satellites from Starlink Internet Services, which is part of Musk's SpaceX aerospace business, made two "close encounters" with the Chinese Space Station on July 1 and Oct. 21.
"For safety reasons, the China Space Station took the initiative to conduct an evasive manoeuvre in the evening of that day to avoid a potential collision between the two spacecraft," China indicated in a document released on the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs' website.
However, these allegations have not been confirmed independently. CNBC also noted that SpaceX did not respond to the comment.
To give further details on the Chinese citizens' post on social media against Elon Musk's SpaceX satellites, one user posted on Weibo, a China's Twitter-like microblogging network, that these are "just a pile of space junk," per CNBC.
Meanwhile, another Weibo user labeled them as "American space warfare weapons."
On the other hand, closing the statement released, China wishes to request the Secretary-General of the United Nations to disseminate the stated information to all States parties to the Outer Space Treaty and bring to their attention the Article VI of the Treaty.
To emphasize, Article VI of the Treaty states that "The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty."
For background information about the Chinese space station, China began creating it in April through the launch of Tianhe, the biggest of the three modules. After four crewed trips, the station is projected to be finished by the end of 2022.
Space Debris and Satellites in the Orbit
This was not the first time that space debris and satellites in orbit have been discussed, per Forbes.
Previously, NASA suddenly canceled a planned spacewalk in late November owing to the dangers presented by space debris.
In reaction to NASA's decision, Musk tweeted, "We had to shift some Starlink satellite orbits to reduce probability of collision."
The South African-born business mogul furthered that the decision of the US space agency is not great but not terrible either.
Moreover, SpaceX has already launched roughly 1,900 satellites to support its Starlink internet network, with more on the way.
In addition to the space junks, NPR reported that China blew up a satellite, in 2007, in a far higher orbit, breaking it into almost 35,000 pieces and spreading it across the full expanse of low Earth orbit--from 200 kilometers to 3,850 kilometers in altitude.
Meanwhile, since space junk poses threats, scientists have asked governments to exchange data to lessen the possibility of catastrophic space collisions, as approximately 30,000 satellites and other junk are believed to be orbiting the Earth, per CNBC.
