Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites reported for nearly striking Chinese space station

Elon Musk has enflamed US-China international relations after satellites launched by his SpaceX company nearly hit the Tiangong space station, which had three crew members on board.

The Chinese government has called on Washington to protect the space station from similar incidents occurring and accused them of ignoring treaty obligations outlined in 1967 to ensure the safety of astronauts.

The United States should “take immediate measures to prevent such incidents from happening again,” said spokesman Zhao Lijian.

Following incidents in July and October, China said the space station had to perform “evasive measures” to “prevent a potential collision” in a new complaint filed with the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

In the October incident the satellites could have come within a few hundred meters if the astronauts had not taken action to move to a different altitude, according to data from the US Center for Astrophysics.

READ: Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites risk blocking out the stars, astronomers warn
 

Musk was criticised earlier this month by the Royal Astronomical Society over the quantity of his Starlink satellites SpaceX has proposed to put into orbit.

The company announced in August that it had already shipped 100,00 terminals and was servicing 14 countries.

SpaceX’s satellites are much smaller than satellites of previous years, and are largely used to provide internet broadband from low earth orbit, which is approximately 2000km.

With the International Space Station having also come close to flying debris recently, there have been increased calls for a solution to congestion in the Earth’s orbit, with more than 4,800 commercial satellites now estimated to be in operation, close to double the total from five years ago.

On top of this, there are around 19,000 pieces of debris large enough to be tracked on radar.

Companies such as Japan’s Astroscale Holdings, where Seraphim Space Investment Trust PLC (LSE:SSIT) is an investor, offer in-orbit services such as removing satellites that are beyond repair, as well as inspecting, repairing and extending the life of others.

There are also a growing number of government-funded schemes to mitigate the amount of space debris, including a public-private partnership led by the European Space Agency (ESA) and UK government-backed OneWeb.

Story by ProactiveInvestors