Chinese citizens have lashed out online against billionaire Tesla founder Elon Musk’s space ambitions as China’s space station had to avoid collision with Starlink’s satellites.
A Reuters report that cited a document submitted by China to the U.N’s space agency has it that satellites from Starlink Internet Services had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station on July 1 and Oct. 21.
Nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris are believed to be orbiting the planet, Reuters says.
As such, scientists have urged governments to share data to reduce the risk of catastrophic space collisions.
SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and is planning more.
“The risks of Starlink are being gradually exposed, the whole human race will pay for their business activities,” a user posting under the name Chen Haiying said on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform.
