Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Elon Musk has come under fire from China. Web users in the Bamboo Curtain country booed the billionaire over reports of a nearly two-collision between the Space-X satellite and China’s Tiangong space station.
quote AFP, Beijing released a report to the United Nations this December, that Tiangong was forced to take preventive controls to avoid collisions in July and October. The reason is there was a “close encounter” with the Starlink SpaceX satellite, which belongs to Musk’s company.
“The maneuver strategy is unknown and the orbital error is difficult to assess,” Beijing wrote about the incident, adding it had ensured the safety and life of astronauts outside orbit.
This made Chinese netizens angry. They even created a special hashtag condemning Elon Musk and his electric car company Tesla, which was posted 87 million times.
“It’s ironic that the Chinese bought Tesla, donated huge sums of money so that Musk could launch Starlink and then he (almost) crashed into the Chinese space station,” one internet user commented.
“Prepare to boycott Tesla,” said another.
Tiangong itself is a symbol of China’s space power, against the domination of the United States (US) and Russia. The space station, which means “heaven’s palace,” is expected to be fully operational by 2022, after entering initial orbit this year.
Musk himself is quite admired in China. Tesla is known to sell tens of thousands of vehicles in the country every month, though it is now shrinking slightly due to a spate of accidents, scandals and data retention issues.
AFP said one in four Tesla cars must be sold in China. Panda Country even built its own factory in Shanghai.
Meanwhile, SpaceX has not commented on this. The Chinese government also did not make a statement.
(boss / boss)
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