On Tuesday (28) China accused the United States of “serious threat” to the safety of its astronauts, claiming that two satellites belonging to billionaire Elon Musk nearly collided with the Beijing space station.
Chinese space station Tiangong had to carry out “preemptive collision avoidance checks” during two “close encounters” with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites in July and October, according to a document sent by Beijing this month to the UN space agency.
On both occasions, the satellites entered orbits that forced the space station operators to change course, the document says.
California-based SpaceX has not responded to requests for comment so far.
On social media, the Chinese criticized Musk and his companies for the incidents. A boycott proposal received 87 million views as of Tuesday morning.
Musk’s company Tesla’s electric cars, however, are widely accepted in China.
“What an irony that the Chinese buy [carros da] Tesla, paying huge sums of money so that Musk could launch Starlink and then [quase] collide with China’s space station,” commented one person.
“Prepare to boycott Tesla,” wrote another, in a standard response in China to foreign brands deemed contrary to Beijing’s national interests.
Some speculated that Washington would have announced sanctions if roles were reversed in the incident.
According to China, which avoided attacking Musk, the US government has failed to fulfill its “international obligations” in space.
“This poses a serious threat to the lives and safety of Chinese astronauts,” said Chinese diplomat spokesman Zhao Lijian.
In the document sent to the UN, China claims, referring to the October incident, that the “maneuver strategy was not known and orbital errors are difficult to assess”. He also highlighted that he acted to “guarantee the safety and lives of astronauts”.
Tiangong, meaning “celestial palace,” is the latest achievement in China’s effort to become a space power after landing a robot on Mars and sending probes to the Moon.
The station’s central module entered orbit a few months ago and should be fully operational by 2022. Two crews of three astronauts each have been on board since June.
Evasive maneuvers become more frequent as more objects saturate the near-Earth orbit and force trajectory adjustments to avoid accidents, said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
“We’ve really noticed an increase in the number of nearby tickets since Starlink started shipping,” he told AFP. He added that a collision would “completely destroy” the space station and kill everyone on board.
Musk is admired in China, but Tesla’s reputation, which sells tens of thousands of cars a month in the country, has plummeted after a spate of accidents, scandals and concerns about data storage.
.
