{"id":387239,"date":"2026-01-04T08:02:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387239\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T08:02:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T08:02:24","slug":"china-warns-elon-musks-starlink-satellites-pose-safety-and-security-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/387239\/","title":{"rendered":"China warns Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellites pose \u2018safety and security\u2019 risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beijing has warned the United Nations that the rapid expansion of Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit pose \u201cpronounced safety and security<\/a>\u201d concerns globally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the rapid expansion of commercial space activities<\/a>, the unchecked proliferation of commercial satellite constellations by a certain country, in the absence of effective regulation, has given rise to pronounced safety and security challenges,\u201d a Chinese representative said at an informal UN Security Council event.<\/p>\n

The Beijing representative cited several incidents<\/a>, including near collisions between Starlink satellites and the Chinese space station<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

Referring to SpaceX\u2019s Starlink satellites, the representative said that \u201csuch constellations crowd frequency-orbit resources [data shared by all satellites in orbit for communication] and significantly increase the risk of collisions\u201d, SCMP first reported.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket rises after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 28 Starlink internet satellites (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Several recent studies have warned that as the number of satellites in orbit increase rapidly in the era of mega-constellations like SpaceX Starlink probes, there is rapidly increasing chances of satellite collisions.<\/p>\n

Currently, as many as 8,500 of the 12,955 active satellites in low-Earth orbit, with just over 66 per cent part of these probes part of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink constellation.<\/p>\n

SpaceX chief Elon Musk has said the Starlink constellation could eventually have over 42,000 satellites, with the company currently having permission to launch 12,000.<\/p>\n

Each of these satellites is designed for a five-year lifespan before it is deliberately burned up in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Chinese projects, including the Quianfan broadband network, plans to launch their own internet satellite megaconstellations rivalling SpaceX.<\/p>\n

The Shanghai state-backed project aims to mass produce and launch over 15,000 satellites by 2030 to provide global broadband coverage.<\/p>\n

With the low-Earth orbit increasingly getting crowded since 2018, the Chinese representative called for countries to better enforce regulations on their commercial space activities.<\/p>\n

The diplomat said a Starlink satellite in 2021 \u201cconducted dangerous close approaches to China\u2019s space station … posing grave threats to the safety of Chinese astronauts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor spacecraft operated by developing countries that lack orbit-control capability, space situational awareness, or sufficient reaction time, this undoubtedly constitutes a major risk,\u201d the unnamed representative said in a statement.<\/p>\n

SpaceX has not immediately responded to The Independent\u2019s request for comment.<\/p>\n

Beijing also warned that commercial satellites are increasingly being used for reconnaissance and battlefield communications, which \u201caggravated the risk of an arms race in outer space\u201d.<\/p>\n

The diplomat called on the US in a veiled reference to \u201cstrengthen regulation and oversight of its commercial space activities, and respond to the concerns of the international community\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beijing has warned the United Nations that the rapid expansion of Elon Musk\u2019s Starlink satellite constellations in low-Earth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[8580,49,48,138466,164486,164485,250,59741,37839,17274,66,306,248],"class_list":["post-387239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-beijing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chinese-space-station","tag-commercial-satellites","tag-commercial-space-activities","tag-elon-musk","tag-representative","tag-satellite-constellations","tag-satellites","tag-science","tag-space","tag-starlink"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}