SpaceX chief Elon Musk has denied accusations of trying to dominate space. According to him, there will be a place in space for "tens of billions" of devices, so the launch of thousands of Starlink communication satellites does not restrict competition.
The businessman responded to criticism of the head of the European Space Agency Joseph Ashbacher, who earlier called on the EU to limit Musk's actions in space because of his attempt to "dominate the new space economy." “Space will become a much more limited space in terms of frequencies and orbital slots,” Ashbakher warned. Luxembourg's Economy Minister Franz Fayo also called for the establishment of general rules for the use of low-orbit outer space against the backdrop of Starlink activities. In addition to Musk's company, China, British OneWeb and American Amazon are also working on the creation of their constellations of LEO satellites.
Chinese social media users have also accused the head of SpaceX of creating dangerous conditions for the Tiangong (China Space Station) space station due to Starlink internet satellites. The head of the American company was criticized after the Chinese authorities said that the station was forced to avoid collisions with SpaceX vehicles.
“The cosmos is huge and the satellites are very tiny,” Musk said. “This is not a situation where we effectively restrict others in any way. We have not forbidden anything to anyone and we are not going to. "
The entrepreneur likened satellites to cars on Earth: “A couple of thousand satellites is a trifle. It's like, hey, here are a couple of thousand cars on Earth - about nothing. "
However, experts interviewed by the Financial Times pointed out that satellites need much more space around them than cars on the road. At a minimum, this is necessary in order to have a margin of time when calculating the trajectories of movements and to avoid collisions.
To date, SpaceX has launched about 2,000 satellites as part of the Starlink project and plans to send tens of thousands more into space.
OneWeb has launched over 200 satellites and plans to deliver 648 to Earth orbit initially. As part of the Kuiper program, Amazon has yet to launch a single satellite. However, at the initial stage, the company has planned delivery of 3236 devices. Kepler and Telesat intend to deliver 140 and 298 satellites to Earth orbit.
British nongovernmental agency Ofcom has expressed concern that OneWeb, Starlink and similar systems in low Earth orbit could block each other's signals. The regulator emphasizes that without the approval of new rules, there will be a possibility of creating anti-competitive conditions.
bbabo.Net