Beijing Dials UN, says SpaceX Satellites had 2 Close Calls with Space Station

In a note dated December 3 to the United Nations, China said that the Tiangong Space Station, a low-earth-orbit station, has had two close encounters with SpaceX satellites.

SpaceX Satellites a Problem, Says China

Global Times, China's state-owned news outlet, reported the two incidents. "Starlink satellites launched by SpaceX had two close encounters with the China Space Station separately on July 1 and October 2021", it noted. Beijing has quoted the same report in its note verbale to the UN.

Worryingly, Tiangong Space Station had to undertake evasive measures to avoid collisions on both the occasions. Notably, the note read that the SpaceX satellites were positioned in lower orbits to improve regional connectivity. Furthermore, it reported that the space station orbits at an altitude of 390 kilometers, inclined 41.5 degrees. China has completed 5 launch missions to build the Space Station in the low-earth orbit. Since that is where most of SpaceX satellites powering Starlink orbit, this was something that was rather inevitable.

Interestingly, multiple reports claimed that Chinese citizens took to social media to protest against Elon Musk and SpaceX. The Chinese people have staged online protests against these allegations. Beijing also stated in the note that SpaceX has not responded to the incidents. While no other space agency has confirmed these incidents, Beijing has stated that these close calls constitute "dangers to the life or health of astronauts abroad the China Space Station".

A Ton of Starlink Satellites

In 2021 alone, SpaceX has had 19 Starlink missions, launching 980 satellites in various orbital shells in the low-earth orbit.  At completion, Starlink will have a constellation of 11,914 satellites around Earth. That means, by the time 2028 rolls over, there will be more Starlink satellites in orbit than there are stars visible in the night sky – a truly remarkable feat.

However, it is rather apparent how that might become a problem in the future. First, space around Earth is limited and with so many satellites, there is the risk of crowding out the near-Earth space environment. Second, there are already thousands of satellites and millions of bits of space debris. While SpaceX satellites will completely burn up in an deorbiting event, any space collision can make a real mess. Even though these satellites were designed to avoid collisions as they go, it is still a lot of hardware.