Billionaire SpaceX CEO insists there’s enough room in space for “tens of billions of satellites”
Elon Musk has rejected complaints that SpaceX Starlink satellites are taking up too much room in Earth’s orbit. Separately, Musk is under fire from Beijing for two near-misses between these satellites and China’s space station.
“Space is just extremely enormous, and satellites are very tiny,”Musk said this to Financial Times in an interview that was published Wednesday. “This is not some situation where we’re effectively blocking others in any way. We’ve not blocked anyone from doing anything, nor do we expect to.”
SpaceX launched more than 1,700 Starlink satellites to orbit so far. The company also plans to launch more than 40,000 satellites in an effort to offer satellite internet access around the globe.
Musk responded to Josef Aschbacher (Director General of European Space Agency), who had earlier in the month accused Musk of being a tycoon. “making the rules”It comes down to orbital space. Aschbacher, who also spoke to the Financial Times, argued that Musk’s Starlink project would fill up slots in Earth’s orbit and hog the limited number of wireless transmission frequencies available to satellites.
Musk had been accused of stealing by Aschbacher “squeezing out”SpaceX CEO, John SpaceX, argued that every large orbital satellite was a potential competitor. “shell” around earth is larger than the planet’s surface, and with a new shell beginning every 10 meters out into space, there is “room for tens of billions of satellites.”
“A couple of thousand satellites is nothing,”He stated. “It’s like, hey, here’s a couple of thousand cars on Earth, it’s nothing.”
China also has criticised Musk, with Beijing filing a complaint to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs about SpaceX earlier this month. China claims that astronauts aboard the China Space Station were required to be present on two occasions in 2018. “conduct an evasive manoeuvre”To avoid Starlink satellites.
SpaceX, however, claims that its satellites are equipped with autonomous collision avoidance technology, and insists that other spacecraft don’t need to take evasive maneuvers to dodge them.
China addressed the US directly in response to China’s complaint. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian insisted that Washington was responsible for SpaceX’s behavior, pointing out that state actors “bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space conducted by their private companies.”
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