Tianhe swerves to avoid collision with Starlink
Print Edition
CHINA said its space station was forced to take evasive action to avoid collision with satellites launched by Elon Musk’s Starlink program.
The satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk’s SpaceX aerospace company, had two “close encounters” with the Chinese space station on July 1 and October 21, according to a document submitted by China earlier this month to the UN’s space agency.
“For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control,” China said in a document published on the website of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs.
With nearly 30,000 satellites and other debris believed to be orbiting the planet, scientists have urged governments to share data to reduce the risk of catastrophic space collisions.
SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1,900 satellites to serve its Starlink broadband network, and is planning more.
US space agency NASA was forced to abruptly call off a spacewalk at the end of November, citing risks posed by space debris.
Musk tweeted in response that some Starlink satellite orbits had been adjusted to reduce the possibility of collisions.
China began constructing the space station in April with the launch of Tianhe, the largest of its three modules.
China aims to finish building the space station next year, with two more cargo missions and another two crewed missions planned for 2022 to make it fully functional. By then, the Tiangong will be about a quarter of the size of the International Space Station.
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