Starlink Satellites Didn't Endanger China's Space Station: U.S.

The United States, in an official “note verbale” to the United Nations, has refuted China’s unusual diplomatic accusation that SpaceX’s Starlink satellites have endangered, and continue to endanger, its crewed space station, Theresa Hitchens reported for Breaking Defense.

Photo Insert: The Starlink Mission

“If there had been a significant probability of collision involving the China Space Station, the United States would have provided a close approach notification directly to the designated Chinese point of contact,” asserts the Jan. 28 missive filed with the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs in Vienna.

Beijing, in its own Dec. 3 note verbale to the same UN office, complained that on two occasions — once in July 2020 and once in October 2021 — the station’s newest core module, Tianhe, had to dodge a Starlink to avoid a crash.

The complaint also asked the UN to “remind States parties” (i.e., the US) about their obligations under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty to ensure that their space operators follow the treaty’s provisions.

The move was politically odd, both in the fact that it seemingly came out of the blue and that the Office of Outer Space Affairs has no official role in mediating such disputes.

The US counter-missive stresses that US Space Command, via the 18th Space Control Squadron, routinely warns all nations, including China, of dangerously close approaches between space objects (both active satellites and debris).

Since 2014, the note adds, the US specifically has been providing warning information to Beijing especially of emergency situations.

Further, the US asserts, Beijing didn’t use available communications channels to voice its concerns and seek to resolve them — and that, in essence, Chinese authorities have failed to avail themselves of the tools that would ensure they have advance warning of any dangerous on-orbit situations.

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