"Elon Musk's race to dominate our planet's orbit with his satellite constellations is creating tons of space junk - enough of it, in fact, that we might want to start looking up. According to storied Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, there are now one or two of these Starlink satellites falling back to Earth every single day, he recently told EarthSky. And that figure, McDowell warned, is only going to keep climbing."
"Low Earth Orbit's rapidly getting more crowded, in other words, and that means a lot of satellite casualties. One of the reasons they're occurring so frequently is that Starlink's satellites have a short lifespan of around five years. After this, they're guided towards the Earth, where they're supposed to burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere. All those cremated satellites have scientists concerned about the pollution they're causing by releasing metals into the stratosphere, with one study y speculating that it could kick off a chain reaction that devastates the ozone layer."
One or two Starlink satellites now fall back to Earth every day, and that number is projected to rise as constellations expand. SpaceX has launched thousands of Starlink satellites since 2019, with more than 8,000 currently operating and over 2,000 launched in 2025 alone. Industry plans and competitors could bring about 30,000 low-Earth-orbit satellites plus roughly 20,000 at about 1,000 km. Short five-year lifespans lead to frequent guided re-entries that are intended to burn up. Concern exists that re-entering satellites release metals into the stratosphere, which could trigger chemical effects harmful to the ozone layer.
Read at Futurism
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