Why China reacted so strongly to its Tiangong space station’s near-misses with Elon Musk’s satellites

Name: How China’s space programme went from launching satellites to building its own space station
Uploaded: 2021-12-29T15:00:18.000Z
Duration: 5 min 6 s
Description: How China’s space programme went from launching satellites to building its own space station

The two incidents this year involving satellites from Elon Musk’s company SpaceX prompted a complaint to the UN and calls on the US to act

China is worried America wants to dominate space and some observers believe the tech entrepreneur’s company may serve that ambition

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SpaceX already has thousands of satellites from its Starlink programme in orbit around the Earth. Photo: Handout

Kristin Huang

Published: 11:00pm, 29 Dec 2021Updated: 2:32pm, 30 Dec 2021

The recent near-misses involving Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites and China’s Tiangong space station have highlighted Beijing’s concerns about space becoming weaponised.

Chinese observers said Washington wants to maintain its dominance in space and warned that the South African-born entrepreneur’s company SpaceX, which has been given a contract to build a new satellite for the US military capable of tracking hypersonic missile launches, may form part of that strategy.

The two near-misses – in July and October – have also highlighted concerns about the low-Earth orbit becoming overcrowded with satellites and space detritus, increasing the danger of a serious accident.

The Chinese space station was forced to manoeuvre to avoid hitting the satellites, one of which came within 4km (2.8 miles) of a collision, and Beijing later sent a note to the United Nations complaining about the close encounters.

Beijing has repeatedly demanded the US avoids similar incidents, and called on Washington to be a “responsible player”.

SpaceX has sent more than 1,900 satellites into space since 2019 and will have more than 42,000 in orbit when its programme is complete.

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How China’s space programme went from launching satellites to building its own space station

Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said: “If Musk’s satellites occupy large portions of [the near-Earth and sun-synchronous] orbits, it leaves little opportunity for other nations to send their own satellites.

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