The head of the European Space Agency (ESA) claims that Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet project is taking up too much room in space.
Elon Musk has rejected those claims.” Tens of billions” of satellites may be accommodated in orbits getting ready to Earth, he told the monetary Times.
His comments come after a claim by the head of the European Space Agency (ESA) that Mr. Musk was “making the rules” for the rising Commercial Space trade.
This week, China complained that its artificial satellite was forced to avoid collisions with Starlink satellites.
Mr Musk aforesaid within the interview, “Space is simply very huge, and satellites area unit terribly tiny”.
Mr Musk pushed back at suggestions that his Starlink Internet Services project was effectively obstructing the entry of competitors to the satellite trade, voice communication that there’s ample space within the Earth’s orbit for satellites.
“This isn’t some scenario where we’re effectively obstruction others in any approach. We’ve not blocked anyone from doing something, nor will we expect to,” he said.
“A number of thousand satellites is nothing. It’s like, hey, here are some of thousand of cars on Earth, it’s nothing,” he added.
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This month, Josef Aschbacher, the director-general of ESA, warned that the thousands of communications satellites launched by Starlink would end in there being so much fewer houses for competitors.
Other consultants have aforesaid that a lot of larger distances are required between spacecraft to avoid collisions than Mr Musk has steered.
Scientists have additionally antecedently voiced issues regarding the risks of collisions in house and referred to as on world governments to share data regarding the calculable 30,000 satellites and other space that are orbiting Earth.
Mr Musk created headlines in the week as he moon-faced a social media backlash when China complained that its artificial satellite was forced to avoid collisions with satellites launched by his Starlink project.
The country’s artificial satellite had 2 “close encounters” with Starlink satellites this year, Beijing claimed.
The incidents occurred on one July and 21Oct.consistent with a document submitted by China this month to the United Nations Officer for space Affairs.
“For safety reasons, the China Space Station implemented preventive collision avoidance control,” Beijing aforesaid in the document revealed on the agency’s website.
The incidents behind the complaints, lodged with the UN’s house agency, haven’t however been severally verified.
China also accused the USA of putting astronauts at risk by ignoring obligations underneath space treaties.
Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian aforesaid China was urging the USA to act responsibly.
SpaceX has already launched nearly 1,900 satellites as a part of the Starlink network and plans to deploy thousands of additional.
