China is angry that its space station almost crashed into a SpaceX satellite
PERMATA POSTS Kind, BEIJING - The Chinese government has lodged a protest with the United Nations (UN) Office for Outer Space Affairs.
Beijing claims its space station had to take evasive action to evade the Starlink satellites on two occasions this year. Starlink is a satellite launched by SpaceX, the company founded by the world's richest man, Elon Musk.
The complaint was filed with the United Nations earlier this month. China accused the Starlink satellite in April of descending from its regular orbit of 555 kilometers above the earth to 382 kilometers, close to the China Space Station's (CSS) orbit of about 390 kilometers.
This orbital change allows for a collision to occur. Beijing said, "The CSS crew was forced to perform evasive maneuvers to avoid this possibility."
The second incident occurred in October. Once again, the Chinese CSS crew took action to evade the Starlink satellite, which the report said was "maneuvering constantly," following an "unknown" strategy.
"The satellites can pose a danger to the life or health of astronauts," said a statement from the Chinese delegation at the United Nations, reported by RT.com on Monday (12/27/2021).
SpaceX already has an agreement with NASA to launch its satellite into a five-kilometer orbit from a US space agency or International Space Station (ISS) craft, which circles the earth approximately 20 kilometers above the CSS.
SpaceX also claims its satellites are equipped with autonomous collision avoidance technology. The company insists other spacecraft do not need to perform evasive maneuvers to avoid it.
While the ISS has never been forced to evade a Starlink satellite before, it does have to dodge space debris on many occasions.
Earlier this month, the ISS adjusted its orbit to avoid the remains of the United States' Pegasus rocket.
SpaceX Falcon rocket debris passed near the ISS a week earlier, and the international space station had to dodge Chinese rocket debris beforehand.
SpaceX has so far put more than 1,700 Starlink satellites into orbit, and the company plans to launch more than 40,000 in total, in a bid to provide satellite internet access worldwide.
However, scientists have raised concerns that such a high number of satellites would add significantly to the already messy orbital environment.
Astronomers also complain that the satellite will block their view of the night sky.