Boycott Tesla Trends After SpaceX Satellites Almost Hit China's Space Station
China has issued a notice to the United Nations, urging the US to act responsibly.
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China has issued a formal complaint to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, accusing the United States of ignoring treaty requirements and engaging in unsafe outer space activities after two close calls between China's space station and SpaceX satellites, BBC reported on 28 December.
Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, or SpaceX, is an aerospace engineering company founded and run by billionaire Elon Musk.
A foreign ministry spokesperson for the People's Republic of China "urges[d] the US to act responsibly," since the aforementioned incidents "constituted dangers to the life or health of astronauts onboard the China space station."
SpaceX has already sent just under 2,000 satellites to space, as part of the Starlink network, which is basically a satellite internet constellation.
Starlink is, according to its own website, "developing a low latency, broadband internet system to meet the needs of consumers across the globe."
Thousands of more satellites are expected to be launched into space as a part of the Starlink project.
'Boycott Tesla' Trends in China
China's notice to the United Nations has led to intense criticism of Musk and Tesla on Chinese social media.
The country is a huge market for Tesla, the electric vehicle and clean energy company whose CEO is Musk.
"How ironic that Chinese people buy Tesla, contributing large sums of money so Musk can launch Starlink, and then he (nearly) crashes into China’s space station," one social media user posted on Weibo, a microblogging website hugely popular among the Chinese people, according to The Guardian.
“Prepare to boycott Tesla," posted Weibo user.
(With inputs from BBC and The Guardian)
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