Founded in June 2002 Elon Musk the private space company SpaceX. Its purpose then was to develop technologies like the Starship missile project. Today, however, the group is also dealing with Starlink. The satellite network is designed to give people around the world access to the Internet. Already today there are almost 2,000 Starlink satellites in earth orbit. However, they not only hold great potential, they also harbor risks.
Elon Musk in the Kritk
At the beginning of December, a Chinese delegation addressed the United Nations (UN). The occasion was given by two near-collisions between the Chinese Tiangong space station and Starlink satellites. They could only be prevented by brief evasive maneuvers by the station. The delegation’s criticism hit the US government, which is also responsible for the machinations of private US organizations in space, as well as SpaceX and the managing director Elon Musk.
This is now opposing the accusations made by China and other parties. The SpaceX CEO occasionally explains that the Starlink satellites would by no means take up too much space in orbit around the world. After all, their orbit offers space for “tens of billions” of spacecraft.
“Space is just extremely big, and satellites are very small. This is not a situation where we are blocking others in any way. We haven’t prevented anyone from doing anything, and we don’t expect that either. “
Elon Musk opposite the Financial Times (via Ars Technica)
Light pollution from satellites
As early as the spring of 2021, researchers were voicing their opposition to the Starlink satellite internet. Most of them were astronomers who criticized the increased light pollution caused by the artificial bodies. From Musk’s perspective, all of this is apparently only half as bad.
The entrepreneur also rejects the claim that he wants to displace possible competitors in the market. Each level of Earth orbit is greater than the previous one. There is another one about every ten meters.
“That would mean space for ten billion satellites. A few thousand satellites are nothing. It’s like there are a few thousand cars on earth – that’s nothing. “
Elon Musk opposite the Financial Times (via Ars Technica)
Source: Ars Technica