China's foreign ministry on Tuesday hit out at the US after two near-misses in outer space that it said posed a "serious threat" to the lives of Chinese astronauts. China's Tiangong space station was forced to take "preventive collision avoidance control" during two "close encounters" with billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink satellites in July and October, according to a document submitted to the UN's space agency by Beijing this month. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES