Starlink satellites forced China's Tiangong space station to evade collision twice

The PRC authorities, through the mediation of the UN, made an appeal to the United States with a demand to influence the space program of Elon Musk's SpaceX company. The Chinese said the Starlink satellites could have collided with the Tiangong station twice in July and October this year.

According to a report submitted by the Chinese side to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, Tiangong Station had to resort to evasive maneuvers twice. China also recalled that the countries participating in the Outer Space Treaty are responsible for the activities of their public and private companies flying.

Jonathan McDowell, a specialist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, noted that sending a complaint from the PRC through a newsletter looks unusual. The scientist also noted that recently the number of collisions of artificial objects in Earth's orbit has increased, including due to the launch of Starlink vehicles. McDowell also added that China is not sinless in this matter - the Chinese anti-satellite defense systems left an impressive amount of space debris in orbit in 2007 during test operations.

At the moment, SpaceX expects to launch about 12,000 Starlink satellites, now the company has already launched over 1,600 vehicles.