Any Problem? Nuh, Just Half of all active satellites are now from SpaceX!

Half of all active satellites in Earth orbit are currently part of SpaceX’s fast expanding fleet of Starlink broadband satellites. The aerospace industry added 21 more satellites to its Starlink fleet of broadband satellites on February 27 with a launch. According to calculations by astronomer Jonathan McDowell using data from SpaceX and the U.S. Space Force, that increased the total number of operational Starlink satellites to 3,660, or around 50% of the nearly 7,300 active satellites in orbit.

In 2023, these massive low-orbit internet constellations will rule the space environment, according to McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Low orbit has seen a very significant transformation and industrialization,”. Since 2019, SpaceX has been launching Starlink satellites with the intention of bringing high-speed internet to far-flung regions of the world. The bright satellites have also been causing scientists to issue warnings for around the same amount of time that they would obstruct their view of the cosmos by producing streaks on telescope photos as they pass (SN: 3/12/20).

These satellite streaks, as well as those from other satellite constellations, are dangerous, even to the Hubble Space Telescope, which orbits more than 500 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. According to research published March 2 in Nature Astronomy by astronomer Sandor Kruk of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, and colleagues, the percentage of Hubble images affected by light from low-orbit satellites increased by about 50% between 2002 and 2021.

The scientists discovered that the percentage of photographs that were partially obstructed by satellites increased somewhat between 2018 and 2021 for one of Hubble’s cameras, from just over 4% to almost 3% of images collected between 2002 and 2005. But compared to 2021, there are currently thousands more Starlink satellites in orbit.

According to Kruk and colleagues, the percentage of [Hubble] images now traversed by satellites is tiny and has little bearing on research. But going forward, the quantity of satellites and space junk will only rise. The group projects that by the 2030s, there will be a 20 to 50% chance that a satellite will pass over Hubble’s field of vision each time it takes an image.

Space traffic is also affected by the abrupt increase of Starlink satellites, according to astronomer Samantha Lawler of the University of Regina in Canada. All of the Starlink satellites orbit at a similar altitude, little over 500 kilometers. Lawler claims that Starlink is the densest region of space that has ever existed. To prevent collisions, the satellites continuously steer clear of one another (SN: 2/12/09). Moreover, it is a well-liked orbital height because Hubble, the International Space Station, and the Chinese space station are all located there.

Lawler claims that if there is a mistake or collision between Starlinks, it can quickly have an impact on human life. Around once a week, SpaceX deploys Starlink satellites; on March 3, it launched 51 more. And they’re not the only business launching internet satellite constellations. There may be 100,000 satellites crowded into low Earth orbit by the 2030s.

International rules to cap the amount of satellites a private corporation can launch or to restrict the orbits they can inhabit do not yet exist. According to McDowell, the pace of commercial development is far greater than that of regulatory change. To handle these significant commercial initiatives, space traffic management and space legislation generally need to be overhauled.