Musk Slams Xi, Says Claimed Satellite Near-Miss 'Is Nothing'

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk faced the ire of China after satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk’s company, had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station.

Photo Insert: The launch of the SpaceX Starlink Mission

According to a document submitted by China to the UN space agency, the incidents occurred on July 1 and October 21, Antony Ashkenaz reported for the Daily Express.

Speaking to the Financial Times, Musk defended himself, saying that "tens of billions" of satellites can be accommodated in orbits close to Earth. He said: "Space is just extremely enormous, and satellites are very tiny."

Musk rejected suggestions that his Starlink project was effectively blocking the entry of competitors to the satellite industry, saying that there is plenty of room in the Earth's orbit for more satellites.

He said: "This is not some situation where we're effectively blocking others in any way. We've not blocked anyone from doing anything, nor do we expect to. A couple of thousand satellites is nothing. It's like, hey, here's a couple of thousand of cars on Earth, it's nothing.”

The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) also attacked Musk, saying that the billionaire tech entrepreneur was "making the rules" for the emerging commercial space industry.

Josef Aschbacher, the director-general of ESA, warned that the thousands of communications satellites launched by Starlink would result in there being far less space for competitors.

He said: “Space will be much more restrictive [in terms of] frequencies and orbital slots. The governments of Europe collectively should have an interest to . . . give European providers equal opportunities to play on a fair market.”

In the complaint documents that China sent to the EU, Beijing accused Musk of endangering “the life or health of astronauts aboard the China Space Station" because of the near-miss incident from his satellite.

It said: “During this period, Starlink satellites launched by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) of the United States of America have had two close encounters with the China Space Station. For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control on 1 July and 21 October 2021, respectively.”

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