China Complain to UN's space agency over Dr Evil's Satellites

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of Dr Evil and his Starlink littering program so it pleases me no end that China have now lodged a complaint about the danger to space traffic being caused by the said littering program , China say in their complaint that they were forced to take measures to avoid collisions with Starlink satellites on 2 occasions this year.

The incidents occurred on 1 July and 21 October, according to a document submitted by China this month to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

"For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control," Beijing said in the document published on the agency's website.
www.bbc.co.uk...

When asked for a response to the claim Dr Evil reportedly said....

From Space.com. Nov 15th 2021

"NASA, Roscosmos and their partners regularly monitor a safety perimeter around the space station that is shaped like a pizza box and extends just over 15 miles (25 kilometers) around the space station and half a mile (0.75 km) above and below. Station officials often move the space station to dodge debris coming into that zone, if enough time allows. That occurred last week, when debris from a 2013 Chinese anti-satellite test passed near the station on Nov. 10."

And now the Chinese want to whine....lol

Seems they haven't figured out the Starlink cube sats have satellite hunter-killer lasers on them.
.

a reply to: whiteboyrick

And now the Chinese want to whine....lol

That was an incident with a bit of existing debris of which there is much , Dr Evil has so far added 1,600 additional bits low-Earth orbit flotsam to the mix with an option to expand that to up to 42,000.

Plus Starlink aren't the only player in the game so unless something is don'e about it the more there will be.

Is it a problem with the satalites themselves or the potential to have full internet access to all of China that is upsetting the CCP? Sounds like some misdirection going on there.

Starlink threatens the great firewall of China.

a reply to: gortex

My opinion is China are probably peeved as some of these Satellites likely pass right over some sensitive areas of China and also offer the possibility that some of them may be spy satellites hidden in the flock of internet satellites.

They also probably do not like the implications of the democratization of Space and the ability for others including the free world to see everything they are up to in there corner of the planet.

But if they DID nearly hit a manned space station then it comes down to WHOM was up there first, if the Chinese put there space station in the way AFTER the launch of these satellites than that is a problem THEY have engineered, however if Musk's space company put them up there AFTER the Chinese had adopted this orbit then that is a financial nightmare for his company.

It is also remember getting to the point at which areas of orbit are financially valuable, no one is selling of buying them but expect claim jumpers to come out of the wood work if they want YOUR patch of space and even to try to muscle you out of it.

Likely if they succeed they will then launch there own satellites into the orbit and copy his idea like they do everyone else, then mysteriously they will have no collision problems with there own satellites in the same orbit?.

Then there is the fact YOUR doctor Evil is actually a decent bloke mostly, he spoke against AI for example.

Tesla is by far the more dangerous of the two with his AI cars (Accidents waiting to happen or like playing Russian roulette).

Not saying he is by any means a nice guy, in fact I would imagine him to be just another ass hole but he has many of his priority's correct even if blighting the heavens with a chain of fast moving fake stars snaking across the sky is not nice let's be fair there, but like I say if not him then someone else, China for example and Space in orbit is rapidly becoming very valuable territory for both financial and security reasons so ask yourself again WHAT IS CHINA's end game in this case?.

They are pushing around nations and invading other nations territory in the south China Sea just as they have in the past on Land and now they are starting to do the same with Space.


On a more serious note space is over crowded, we need to get some real space sweepers up there, one good idea I will not begrudge China.

a reply to: gortex

China should be more concerned about the possible arrival of an Alien Fleet.

a reply to: gortex

I wonder if someone will inform Beijing that by having acted like such tools over so many issues with other countries, there will be likely little sympathy for their perception that a problem exists. Karma be that way.

And yeah, I don't like Starlink either. Messes up muh night sky.

Cheers

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

It's not just China , their voice is another in a growing chorus of complaints against Starlink and near misses.

a reply to: gortex

What were you thinking why space and parts of the military were privatised?
An 'entrepreneur' can act a lot more aggressive than a nation.
A true patriot. Even if it's a bit blatant.
But ey, right?
It's one of those things everybody knows and pretends they don't.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: whiteboyrick

And now the Chinese want to whine....lol

That was an incident with a bit of existing debris of which there is much , Dr Evil has so far added 1,600 additional bits low-Earth orbit flotsam to the mix with an option to expand that to up to 42,000.

Plus Starlink aren't the only player in the game so unless something is don'e about it the more there will be.

There's a difference between "flotsam" and "spacecraft". Starlink spacecraft have onboard propulsion and are placed in predictable orbits that are approved by licensing agencies. Their orbits are easy to predict and they can be--and are--maneuvered out of the way of potential conflicts with other known spacecraft. The flotsam or debris that is created by--for example--the recent Russian ASAT test creates a debris cloud containing pieces too small to track with radar and that are incapable of maneuvering out of the way of anything. That hazard is orders of magnitude greater than a known constellation of controllable spacecraft.

Anyone who operates spacecraft in low Earth orbit has to pay attention to possible collisions and take evasive action now and then. I'm sure Starlink has had to take evasive maneuvers in the past and will in the future.

I think the Chinese are just pissed that Elon is putting up an internet satellite network before they are and they can't do anything about it. This will probably make control of the internet content that Chinese citizens can access much harder.

a reply to: 1947boomer

Starlink spacecraft have onboard propulsion and are placed in predictable orbits that are approved by licensing agencies.

That is as it may be but Starlink satellites have been found responsible for over half of the near misses this year and there are currently just a fraction of the satellites in orbit, they're also obscuring our radio and optical telescopes with clutter.

a reply to: gortex

China.
Bitching about someone else's "litter".

Ironic comedy doesn't write itself folks, this is rich, lmao.

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: 1947boomer

Starlink spacecraft have onboard propulsion and are placed in predictable orbits that are approved by licensing agencies.

That is as it may be but Starlink satellites have been found responsible for over half of the near misses this year and there are currently just a fraction of the satellites in orbit, they're also obscuring our radio and optical telescopes with clutter.

source?

I think Boomer is right. leftists hate that which they can't control.

a reply to: LABTECH767

You're close. What China has a problem with is that anybody can obtain internet through those satellites. That kind of puts a crimp in their ability to control the information that is available to their citizens, I mean subjects, I mean peasants.

a reply to: ElGoobero

source?

"I have looked at the data going back to May 2019 when Starlink was first launched to understand the burden of these megaconstellations," Lewis told Space.com. "Since then, the number of encounters picked up by the Socrates database has more than doubled and now we are in a situation where Starlink accounts for half of all encounters."
www.space.com...

I think Boomer is right. leftists hate that which they can't control.

I think Thomas Gray was right when he said ignorance is bliss.

bet this kind of thing is the real reason why similar technologies failed in the past when other companies tried it, others started complaining then filing diplomatic complaints and regulation it into no longer being profitable, eventually forcing America to follow suit because so much pressure.

a reply to: alldaylong
Pfft....

It's bad enough we are trashing the planet, but now we have trashed space around our planet.
Why would they want to visit a "space" dump?

And really, China? Pot, met Kettle.

a reply to: gortex

How do you feel about SatNet and GuoWang? Because this has more to do with those Chinese ventures than anything else.

And yet another thing Gortex & China agree on.