Chinese social media accuses Tesla’s Elon Musk of a SpaceX satellite about to have problems with the Chinese space station

Tesla is still extremely popular and sells about one in four of its cars in China.

Beijing:

Chinese web users criticized billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday after Beijing said its space station took evasive action to avoid colliding with two of his SpaceX satellites, dealing a blow to the reputation of the company. tycoon’s reputation in a country that already uses his Tesla electric car.

China’s Tiangong space station was forced to exercise “collision prevention control” during two “close encounters” with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite in July and October, according to a document submitted by Beijing. to the United Nations space agency this month.

In both cases, the satellites moved into orbit causing space station operators to change course, the document said.

Beijing spoke of the satellite involved in the October incident, and said it had acted to “ensure the safety and life of astronauts in orbit”.

Tiangong – which means “heavenly palace” – is the latest achievement in China’s bid to become a space power, after landing a rover on Mars and sending a probe to the Moon.

Its core module entered orbit earlier this year, with the station expected to be fully operational by 2022.

Chinese social media users have criticized Musk and his companies for the incident, with a hashtag that has racked up 87 million views as of Tuesday morning.

“How ironic that the Chinese bought Tesla, contributed large sums of money so Musk could launch Starlink, and then he [nearly] crashed into China’s space station”, one user commented.

“Prepare to boycott Tesla,” another said in a nod to the popular response in China to foreign brands allegedly acting contrary to Beijing’s national interests.

Some speculated that Washington would impose sanctions if the roles were reversed.

“Why don’t we do what they do?” one person wrote.

California-based SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Despite Musk’s huge fan following in China, the reputation of Tesla – which sells tens of thousands of cars in the country each month – has declined this year after a series of accidents, scandals and traffic concerns. data storage.

But Tesla remains hugely popular and sells about one in four of its cars in the country, as well as building a rare wholly owned factory in Shanghai.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)