Search

Starlink satellites were designed to burn up when they re-enter our planet's atmosphere. To prevent accidents, however, the company typically deorbits its satellites over open oceans and away from populated islands and locations with heavy air or maritime traffic. After all, one accidental collision could have a huge impact on the satellite broadband industry. To be able to target specific locations for re-entry, SpaceX maintains attitude control down to very low altitudes of around 125 km. However, SpaceX admitted that its satellites do have components that are likely to survive re-entry with

Instead of waiting for its satellites to fail and fall on their own, SpaceX takes a proactive approach. "Controlled, propulsive deorbit is much shorter and safer than a comparable uncontrolled, ballistic deorbit from an equivalent altitude and allows all Starlink satellites to maintain maneuverability and collision avoidance capabilities during the descent," it explained. There's no set frequency for Starlink deorbits, but they're a pretty common occurrence due to the size of the broadband service's constellation. According to satellite tracking platform Orbital Radar, there are currently more

Well, that's what scientists are still trying to figure out. The number of satellites in orbit will only continue to grow, as both American and Chinese companies launch them in big batches for their mega-constellations. In the US, there's Amazon, aside from SpaceX, which is also building a constellation for its Leo broadband service. As Harvard Climate Brief explains, when a satellite's organic materials, like carbon-fiber composites, burn up, they release black carbon particles, or what's simply known as soot. At the moment, their impact on the atmosphere, if any, is still unclear. Scientists