China says Musk’s SpaceX satellites had 2 close encounters with its space station

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China on Tuesday alleged that US billionaire Elon Musk-owned SpaceX’s satellites had two ‘close encounters’ with its space station in orbit, and has complained to the United Nations about the incidents which endangered the safety of the Chinese astronauts.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, addressing a media briefing in Beijing, said that the Chinese space station was forced to avoid collisions with satellites launched by Musk’s Starlink Internet Services project.

“I can confirm in July and October this year SpaceX satellite links made close encounters with China’s space station twice,” Zhao said. During this period, the Chinese astronauts were executing missions in the Space Station, he said, replying to a question. “Out of security reasons, the Chinese space station adopted preventive collision avoidance control measures,” he said.