China slams US after space station 'close encounters' with Musk's satellites

A screengrab of a video from Nov 7, 2021, shows Chinese astronaut Zhai Zhigang stepping out of China's Tiangong space station. - AFP

BEIJING (AFP): Beijing on Tuesday (Dec 28) accused the United States of irresponsible and unsafe conduct in space over two 'close encounters' between the Chinese space station and satellites operated by Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Tiangong, China's new space station, had to manoeuvre to avoid colliding with one Starlink satellite in July and with another in October, according to a note submitted by Beijing to the United Nations space agency this month.