Chinese citizens have criticized the ambitions of Tesla's "space" founder, billionaire Elon Musk, after China complained that its space station had to take evasive measures to avoid collisions with satellites launched by Musk's Starlink program. The SpaceX-owned satellite company, of which Musk owns about 50%, came close to the Chinese space station twice on July 1 and October 21, according to a document provided by China earlier this month to the United Nations space agency.
China noted in a document published on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs: "For safety reasons, the Chinese space station implemented a preventive collision avoidance control system."
In a post on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, similar to Twitter, one user described Starlink satellites as "just a pile of space junk," while another referred to them as "weapons for America's space war," as reported by Reuters and reviewed by Al Arabiya Net.
With nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris orbiting the planet, scientists have urged governments to share data to mitigate the risks of catastrophic space collisions. SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites for its Starlink broadband network and plans to launch more.
NASA also had to abruptly cancel a space operation at the end of November, citing the risks posed by space debris. Musk tweeted in response that some Starlink satellites' orbits have been adjusted to reduce the likelihood of collisions.
China began building its space station in April with the launch of "Tianhe," the largest of its three modules. The station is expected to be completed by the end of 2022 after four manned missions.
