International complaint
Ramming course – Elon Musk’s rowdy satellites forced Beijing’s space station to perform evasive maneuvers
With this launch SpaceX Falcon 9, 53 Starlink satellites were brought into space.
© Picture Alliance
Beijing is not amused. Elon Musk company SpaceX wants to bring up to 12,000 satellites into space. And there are already problems with the Starlink satellites heading.
Elon Musk likes to appear as an enfant terrible with provocative theses. Now he is said to have turned out to be a bully in space. His satellites are said not to have taken care of the house rules in space. Beijing has complained to the United Nations that the Chinese space station had to fly two evasive maneuvers last year to avoid Musk’s Starlink satellites. In a report that Beijing presented to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space in December, China said that its space station took measures to avoid collisions with the Starlink satellites in July and October.
“China would like to ask the Secretary General of the United Nations to forward the above information to all contracting states of the space treaty,” said the report submitted by the Permanent Mission in Vienna. The process is a novelty because the space treaty was concluded between nations and, with SpaceX, private companies are now also placing objects in space for the first time. The Chinese complaint then also emphasizes that the contracting parties must have “international responsibility” for national activities, even if they are carried out by non-governmental institutions in space.
It gets full in space
Indeed, it gets tight in orbit. SpaceX has launched more than 1,600 satellites into space for its Starlink network. The US Federal Communications Commission has allowed SpaceX to use up to 12,000 satellites. This figure refers to just one company in a single country, and if this model catches on, hundreds of thousands of satellites could soon be orbiting the earth. For comparison: there will be around 4600 active satellites in 2021.
Because SpaceX is a company, China probably chose to go through an international organization. On the other hand, it is not unusual for space stations to have to fly evasive maneuvers. So far, however, she only had to avoid space junk. Material that is not controlled by anyone. The situation is a little different for a satellite. Here the owner is responsible for the course he has chosen. SpaceX’s approach actually seems inconsiderate, because even if thousands of missiles are buzzing around the earth today, there are only two manned stations that should be given special attention. With the increasing number of satellites, today’s problems will increase massively. Space is getting fuller. Commercially-minded firm will create an eternal rush hour in orbit.