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Billionaire Elon Musk, who became the World’s Richest Man in 2021, seems to have run into some trouble after his aerospace company SpaceX’s Starlink satellite reported two close encounters with China’s space station this year. And to make matters worse, China recently filed a formal complaint against the United States to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, it stated that the latter has been neglecting space treaty by engaging in dangerous space activities. To support their claim, China even highlighted their space station’s close encounters with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite in 2021.
While the race to dominate outer space and win the race to Mars between China and the United States continues to gain momentum, it looks like the former won’t stand back from taking a dig against their nation’s favourite Elon Musk as well. With the billionaire’s SpaceX operating nearly 2000 Starlink satellites in outer space, the recent complaint seems to have a huge impact on Musk’s popularity and Tesla’s market in China. Check out a few ‘boycott tesla’ tweets here:
Block SpaceX, boycott Tesla till they abandon that 10,000 more satellites plan
They don’t care about risks
— LegendaryGodzilla (@NewestGodzilla) December 28, 2021
I genuinely don’t believe that Elon Musk was trying to provoke China by almost hitting a space station. I just think everything he is tangentially involved in, inevitably just slapping his name on it and having zero input into the creative process, still ends up complete dogshit.
— Ghostface Kafka (36 Chambers) (@RuairiWood) December 29, 2021
China: Americans! stay out of our internal domestic affairs about restricting democratic free expression in our citizenry.
Also China: Can you ask Elon Musk to stop sending rockets close to our space station?
— mometti (@dbc___) December 29, 2021
Not really great for SpaceX if their satellites are causing close collisions with China’s space station and leading to them undertaking evasive manoeuvres. https://t.co/WI2zzSrrta
— Samuel Carvalho (@SamCarvalho) December 29, 2021
Apart from notifying the US about the two close encounters, the complaint submitted by China also mentioned that their space station, Tiangong, was forced to manoeuvre in order to avoid collision with the satellite. “The U.S. claims to be a strong advocate for the concept of responsible behaviour in outer space, but it disregarded its treaty and posed a grave threat to the safety of astronauts,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said in a news conference earlier this week.
China has emerged as a series threat to the US supremacy in outer space in recent years, and with Beijing announcing their goal to dispatch a crew to Mars by 2033, a plan which could beat NASA’s deadline.
Cover Image: Shutterstock
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