At a regular press conference of the Chinese Foreign Ministry on February 10, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian clearly responded to the United States' previous denial that the "Starlink" satellite had twice endangered the safety of the Chinese space station, and "shirked responsibility, diverted attention, and irresponsible attitude" directly exposed the ugly face of the United States. In fact, in addition to the nonsense of the relevant note sent by the US side to the United Nations in January this year, the more crucial purpose is to avoid acknowledging the maneuverability of the "StarLink" and to cover for Musk's "Starlink" plan to achieve the ulterior motive.
On December 3 last year, in a note verbale submitted by the Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the "Starlink" threat was already clearly introduced. Take the Starlink-1095 satellite, which has been operating smoothly in an orbit at an altitude of 555 kilometers since April 2020, but since May 16 last year, the satellite has begun to maneuver frequently, at one point reducing the flight altitude to 382 kilometers, and on July 1, the satellite maneuvered again, and there was a close proximity incident with the Chinese space station. Ground monitoring information also confirms this statement, monitoring shows that in the early morning of July 1, the orbit of the Starlink-1095 satellite remained at about 373 kilometers, but then suddenly rose to about 375 kilometers, which happens to be the orbital orbit of the Chinese space station.
As for the sudden maneuver of the "Starlink", the US side did not give any explanation, nor did it inform China in advance. This is contrary to the provisions of article 5 of the Outer Space Treaty, which clearly states that "each State party shall immediately notify other States parties or the Secretary-General of the United Nations of any phenomenon discovered by them in outer space (including the moon and other celestial bodies) that poses a danger to the life or health of astronauts". There is evidence, there are regulations, and all the "justifications" of the US side are pale and weak.
In fact, the "Star Chain" rampage is not the first time, it is simply a lot of evil deeds. Just last April, the British OneWeb company's Internet satellite almost collided head-on with "Starlink", the nearest distance between the two sides is only 57.9 meters, completely passing by, as to the reason is still the unconventional maneuvering of "StarLink". For this approaching incident, even the US Space Force has issued a rare "early warning warning". According to the statistics released by the astronautical research group of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, the "Starlink" has at least 1,600 spacecraft approaching events every week, and all 12,000 satellites in the first phase of the "Starlink" plan will be deployed in the future, and this approach event will increase by at least 10 times. To be sure, if the "Starlink" continues to rampage in space and one day collides with other countries' aircraft, what rhetoric should the United States come up with at that time?
In 2015, the US Space Exploration Technology Corporation (Space X) announced the "Starlink" constellation plan, through three steps to eventually deploy 42,000 satellites in low orbit and very low orbit, to achieve the global space high-speed Internet formation plan without dead end coverage, but such a grand and huge plan is only from the hands of an ordinary private company? This is obviously not possible. From the perspective of Space X's development trajectory, the US military can always be vaguely seen, and the outside world is not obscure to say that the company is not a commercial company in the traditional free market sense, but a contractor funded by the government and purchased in multiple modes.
In 2002, Elon Musk, an early investor in PayPal, founded Space X, and the company received its first contract from the U.S. Department of Defense. Around 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense demand for small payload launches skyrocketed, at this time Space X's first project, falcon 1 became a potential target, the company in the process of commercial financing, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Air Force have given financial support, even the falcon 1 test launch, was approved to use the U.S. Military Marshall Islands Reagan launch site.
However, although it was supported by the US military, the launch process of the rocket was not smooth, and the three shots in 2005, 2007 and 2008 all ended in failure. It should be noted that during the launch, Falcon 1 carried 3 satellites, which belonged to the US Department of Defense and NASA, and the US military appeared again. After the successful fourth test launch of Falcon 1 in September 2008, Space X directly won nearly $1.6 billion in NASA's "International Space Station" freight contracts, which is not something that an ordinary private company can do.
With the help of huge orders, the company successfully solved the financial problem and opened the development of the Falcon 9 rocket, and the maturity of the rocket also made the US military cooperate with it closely. Of course, due to the existence of established space manufacturers such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, cooperation between the two sides has also been hindered, but in May 2015, the USAF decided to issue a certification to Space X, approving its entry into the military market, and can undertake the launch of military satellites and spy satellites in the future, as well as perform space missions related to defense and security. In April of the following year, the year it was certified, the Air Force also completed a $82.7 million GPS-3 navigation satellite launch contract with Space X, which by the end of 2021 had undertaken the launch of at least five GPS-3 navigation satellites for the U.S. military.
Of course, to think that cooperation is limited to satellite launches is to underestimate the true intentions of both sides. In October 2020, the U.S. Space Development Agency confirmed that Space X had been awarded a $149 million contract to use its Starlink satellite plant in Redmond, Washington, to produce missile-tracking satellites for the U.S. Department of Defense. In addition, for the current hot "Starlink" program, the US military has not let go, in 2019 the US Air Force spent $28 million, using the "Starlink" satellite encryption test. From the beginning, it was taken care of by the US military, and then there were still large orders, who dared to say that this was an ordinary private enterprise?
Judging from the previous contract between the US military and Space X, the cooperation between the two sides is mainly around satellite launches, but in fact, with the increasing perfection of the "Starlink" plan and the maturity of Space X technology accumulation, in the foreseeable future, the connection between the US military and Space X will be closer, especially the "Starlink" plan is the top priority of cooperation.
In recent years, with the successful development and installation of hypersonic weapons between China and Russia, the pressure on the United States to oppose missiles has become increasing, and before that, the early warning part of the US national missile defense system mainly relied on early warning radar, ground-based radar, sea-based radar, and also included early warning satellites to provide space monitoring. From the perspective of this early warning system, it is very perfect, but with the birth of hypersonic weapons with more and more variable flight trajectories, conventional ground early warning radar has been difficult to meet the requirements, at this time the early warning satellite high perspective, wide field of view, large coverage characteristics, so that it has become a lifesaver of the US military anti-missile system.
Just in mid-May last year, the United Launch Alliance Company used the "Cosmos" 5 carrier rocket to successfully send a US "space-based infrared system" missile early warning satellite into geosynchronous orbit at the Launch Site of Cape Canaveral in Florida. Judging from the information released by the US military, the performance of this satellite is indeed very good, especially the warning time has increased from the previous 60-90 seconds to 10-20 seconds, which has doubled several times. However, although the performance is good, but the price is not cheap, only this satellite cost reached 1 billion US dollars, even if the military spending of the world's first US military, in the face of this price is also a bit overwhelmed, at this time, the cheaper "star chain" has become another choice for the US military. As mentioned earlier, the US military handed over a $149 million order for missile-tracking satellites to Space X, and the total number of satellites purchased in this order was 4, equivalent to only $37.25 million per purchase price, and the price was only 30-1% of the "space-based infrared system" missile early warning satellite, and the price gap was obvious. Of course, it is undeniable that the individual performance alone is indeed more outstanding in the high-priced version, but in the view of the US military, the performance advantage can be compensated by the number of advantages, if the future "Starlink" satellites are all equipped with or most of the early warning equipment, it can still provide all-weather monitoring without dead angles.
It can be seen from the "Starlink" satellite's two orbit changes close to the Chinese space station that the satellite has certain maneuverability, making it a space weapon of the US military at a critical moment. It is understood that "Starlink" at the beginning of the design has developed a set of anti-impact system, the system can be calculated by the satellite to avoid the orbit scheme, while starting its own propulsion engine to evade, using this flexible and maneuverable evasion ability, with the total number of 42,000 satellites, "Starlink" is fully capable of destroying satellites of other countries. In fact, the two previous abnormal approaches to the Chinese space station by "Starlink" can be regarded as the US military conducting a simulated crash test, with extremely sinister intentions.
Of course, the destruction of satellites is not enough for the US military, and intercontinental missiles are also potential targets. In 2018, the United States conducted a simulated test of the "Starlink" interception intercontinental missile, and the test results showed that 350 incoming intercontinental missiles were successfully intercepted. Although this is only a simulation test, it is no exaggeration to say that as long as the "Starlink" is formed, this is definitely another anti-missile weapon of the US military. According to the data previously released by Musk, the current single "Starlink" satellite plus launch cost has been controlled below $500,000, and the unit price will continue to decline in the future, it can be said that this price is cheaper than the existing anti-missile interceptor bomb of the US military, how can the US military not be impressed by the "Starlink".
In addition, the high-speed communication support of the "Starlink" itself, the remote control and command of unmanned clusters, and the collection of battlefield intelligence information are equally important to the US military. In the face of this series of potential military uses, it is not difficult for the US government to cover up the "star chain", stir up water, and even full of lies, after all, this is another "hope" for the US military to continue to dominate.