China claims that the satellites of the Starlink company, owned by Elon Musk, could have caused a space catastrophe.

According to CNBC , in a document delivered this month by the Chinese government to the UN space agency, Beijing reports that its space station had to maneuver so as not to collide with two of the satellites of the Starlink constellation .

According to the document, the Tiangong space station had to carry out preventive controls twice to avoid colliding with SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. The events took place on July 1 and October 21. After the news broke, users of Weibo , the popular Chinese social network equivalent to Twitter or Facebook, set the platform on fire with comments against Musk and his satellites.

China claims that the two incidents constituted potential “dangers to the life or health of the astronauts aboard the Chinese space station.” The media also indicates that at the moment the incidents reported by China in its complaint to the UN have not been independently verified. For its part, SpaceX has not responded to CNBC’s request for comment.

It is not the first time that Starlink devices have been involved in a similar problem. In September 2019, ESA’s (European Space Agency) Aeolus satellite also had to perform a series of maneuvers to avoid a possible collision with one of these objects. According to ESA, despite being warned, SpaceX told him that he would not do anything because the situation “was not dangerous.”

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