What If Satellites Collide Because No One Is Checking Email?
To reduce the risks of disaster, the U.S. has to work with China to devise a better alert system in space. Here is what they can agree on first.
A SpaceX rocket with a spy satellite payload launched early this month.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Back in December the Chinese government notified the United Nations that its new space station had twice maneuvered out of the way of satellites belonging to Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technology Corp., or SpaceX, in 2021. Yet rather than phone SpaceX, NASA or even the White House, China leaned on a less reliable means of communication to express concern and resolve the matter.
“Chinese authorities tried multiple times to reach the U.S. side via e-mail, but received no reply,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson explained last Thursday, when commenting on the near collision.