Recently, a heavy news about low-Earth orbit has once again ignited the "anger" of the Chinese people, the news said that the US satellite twice approached the Chinese space station, there is a risk of collision, in order to avoid the risk, the Chinese space station had to change the trajectory twice.
As a result, the Chinese space station wasted precious aviation fuel, knowing that the cost of transporting each kilogram of fuel is at least more than 10,000 US dollars.
Many friends can't help but ask: What does the United States really want to do things under our noses? Intentional or unintentional?
According to the information disclosure: these two satellites are not reconnaissance satellites of the US military, but belong to the Us spaceX company's starlink satellites, one is the starlink satellite -1095, launched on January 7, 2020, the other is the starlink satellite -2305, launched on March 24, 2021.
Good guys, is musk the cosmic madman doing things again? In order to create a satellite Internet covering the world, Musk said that it will launch 30,000 Starlink satellites, and by December 2021, SpaceX has successfully launched more than 1,700 Satellites, and the Internet network covers the United States, Canada and some European regions.
The Satellite orbits in a low-Earth orbit of more than 540 kilometers, but curiously, Satellites-1095 has dropped its orbital altitude from more than 540 kilometers to more than 380 kilometers from May to June 2021, and is approaching the Chinese space station that is operating at an orbital altitude of 382x390 kilometers, which is the first approach.
In July 2021, a recently launched Starlink satellite, 2305, once again lowered its orbital altitude and operated in an orbit consistent with the orbital altitude of the Chinese space station, and made its second approach.
First, 1440 satellites were placed in low-Earth orbit at an inclination of 53.0° and a height of 550 km. Second, 1440 satellites were placed in low-Earth orbit at an inclination of 53.2° and a height of 540 km. Third, place 720 satellites in low-Earth orbit at a 70° inclination of 570 kilometers. Four, 408 were placed in low-Earth orbit at a height of 560 km at an inclination of 97.6°.
It is not an easy task to manage so many satellites, not to mention that a private company may be caused by the negligence of the managers of the SpaceX Satellite Chain satellite, and the two faulty satellites have secretly lowered their orbital altitude and unintentionally approached the Chinese space station.
Back in 2020, I heard that several Starlink satellites had lost control due to malfunctions. If this is the case, then spaceX will improve the management of starlink satellites in the later stage, so as not to cause unnecessary space disasters, and it should be known that every spacecraft is piled up with money.
But if spaceX is intentional, it will be a very serious thing, and it has long been heard that spaceX starlink satellites have the ability to be modified with offensive weapons to destroy other countries' satellites and space stations, and the consequences are terrible to think about.
As early as a few months ago, the United States came out with such a threat theory: saying that the Chinese space station is very advanced, has the ability to destroy American satellites, tracks and approaches American satellites, and then uses robotic arms to cut off the solar wings of American satellites.
But whether intentional or unintentional, the Starlink satellite deviated from the original orbital altitude, approached the spacecraft of other countries, created a collision risk, violated the relevant space treaties, and caused people to worry, Musk always had to come out to give a statement.
First, because there are too many starlink satellites, it will cause light pollution to the night sky and affect the observation of the night sky by ground-based telescopes. Second, tens of thousands of star-chain satellites crowd low-Earth orbit. Third, after the decommissioning of the Starlink satellite, a large amount of space debris will be added to low Earth orbit, and the risk of spacecraft collision will increase. Interesting and informative scientific content, please pay attention to the only WeChat public account: Interesting Exploration