BEIJING — Chinese citizens lashed out online against billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space ambitions on Monday after China complained that its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Musk’s Starlink program. The satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company, had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station on July 1 and Oct. 21, according to a document submitted by China earlier this month to the U.N.’s space agency. ADVERTISEMENT“For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control,” China said in a document published on the website of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. U.S. space agency NASA was forced to abruptly call off a spacewalk at the end of November, citing risks posed by space debris. China began constructing the space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the largest of its three modules.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer December 27, 2021 15:52 UTC