Elon Musk Rejects Claims His Satellites are Squeezing Out Rivals in Space

upstart writes:

Elon Musk rejects claims his satellites are squeezing out rivals in space:

Elon Musk has hit back at criticism that his company's Starlink satellites are hogging too much room in space, and has instead argued there could be room for "tens of billions" of spacecraft in orbits close to Earth.

"Space is just extremely enormous, and satellites are very tiny," Musk said. "This is not some situation where we're effectively blocking others in any way. We've not blocked anyone from doing anything, nor do we expect to."

His comments, made in an interview with the Financial Times, came in response to a claim from Josef Aschbacher, head of the European Space Agency, that Musk was "making the rules" for the new commercial space economy. Speaking to the FT earlier this month, Aschbacher warned that Musk's rush to launch thousands of communications satellites would leave fewer radio frequencies and orbital slots available for everyone else.

[...] Rejecting suggestions he was "squeezing out" future satellite competitors, Musk compared the number of satellites in low Earth orbit to what he said were 2 billion cars and trucks on Earth. Each orbital "shell" around the Earth is larger than the planet's surface, he said, with an additional shell every 10 meters or so further out into space.

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