Deputy Chairman of the Space Transport Committee of the International Federation of Astronautics Yang Yuguang said that the normal operating altitude of Starlink exceeds 500 km and does not coincide with the position of the Chinese space station
BEIJING, December 29. /tass/. The American company SpaceX, in the process of launching Starlink microsatellites, arbitrarily changes their orbit and does not notify other countries about it in time, which should be considered a manifestation of extreme irresponsibility. This opinion was expressed on Wednesday by the deputy chairman of the Space Transport Committee of the International Federation of Astronautics, Yang Yuguang.
"We cannot guess whether the lowering of the orbit of the Starlink satellite turned out to be a malfunction in the system or a deliberate action, but it is very irresponsible to change it and not notify the relevant parties in time," the People's Daily quoted him as saying.
The expert confirmed that such launches threaten the lives of astronauts in orbit. Yang Yiguang recalled that the normal operating altitude of Starlink exceeds 500 km and does not coincide with the position of the Chinese space station.
As Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Tuesday, China expresses dissatisfaction with the actions of the United States in near-Earth space and demands that the United States take responsibility for the activities of American companies that threaten the lives of Chinese cosmonauts with their rocket launches. According to him, by doing so, Washington "demonstrates its double standards to the world."
