Chinese Residents Call Elon Musk's Satellite A Space War Weapon, What's Going On?

The launch of a satellite on a SpaceX rocket that is thought to have disrupted China's space station. (photo; Doc. SpaceX)

JAKARTA - The billionaire and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk has just had an unpleasant day. The richest man in the world has been criticized by Chinese citizens after the China Space Station (Tiangong) incident.

Tiangong Space was forced to take action to avoid a collision with a satellite launched in Musk's Starlink program.

According to documents submitted by China earlier this month to the United Nations space agency, satellites from Starlink Internet Services, a division of Musk's aerospace company SpaceX, were said to have made very close proximity to the Chinese space station on July 1 and October 21.

"For security reasons, the China Space Station has implemented collision prevention controls," China said in a document published on the website of the United Nations Office of Space Affairs.

Citing NBC News, Tuesday, December 28, however, the complaint has not been independently verified. Likewise with SpaceX which has not commented on this matter.

As this information caught China's attention, its citizens flocked to the microblogging platform Weibo yesterday, one user saying the Starlink satellite is "just a pile of space junk," while another described it as "America's space warfare weapon."

Currently, nearly 30.000 satellites and other debris are believed to have orbited the planet Earth. Space scientists are urging governments to share data to reduce the risk of catastrophic collisions. SpaceX alone has deployed nearly 1.900 satellites to service the Starlink broadband network, and plans to launch many more.

Previously, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was also suddenly forced to cancel space travel at the end of November, citing the risks posed by space debris.

Musk himself has become a well-known figure in China, although Tesla's electric vehicle business has come under intense scrutiny from regulators, especially after a customer boarded a Tesla car at the Shanghai auto show in April to protest poor customer service.