China recently complained that its budding space station, which is still in construction, had two close encounters with satellites launched by the Starlink program earlier this year.
Chinese citizens criticized Musk after two of his satellites nearly collided.
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The Chinese space station was twice forced to take evasive action in order to avoid a collision with satellites that were launched by Musk's company, according to a document submitted by China to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
China claims that its space station had to implement collision avoidance control on July 1 and October 21 when faced with oncoming Starlink satellites.
According to the document, China told the UN Secretary-General that the close encounters with Starlink satellites constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts aboard the China Space Station.
The news was followed by a backlash against Musk on Chinese social media site Weibo, with a few users opposing his space ambitions.
The construction of the space station in China began in April of 2021, and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
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Scientists are urging governments to share satellite data in order to avoid potential space collision as space debris has become an increasing risk. There are more than 30,000 satellites and other pieces of debris around the planet.
This isn't the first time there has been debate about space debris. NASA called off a planned space walk in late November due to risks posed by space debris. NASA decided to shift the Starlink satellite's position to reduce the chance of a collision. Not great, but not terrible either. Musk has faced criticism over high costs for his Starlink satellite broadband service, which has already met with high demand, and the impact its satellites will have on space.
The quote is crucial.
There was a risk of a collision between the Starlink-2305 satellite and the China Space Station because the strategy was unknown and the orbital errors were hard to assess. The China Space Station performed an evasive maneuver to avoid a potential collision with another spaceship.
According to Forbes, Musk is the richest person on the planet.
