Future proposals to launch over 1.7 million satellites into Earth’s orbit will have “devastating consequences” for astronomy, a study from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) claims.
The number of active satellites orbiting Earth has exploded over the past decade, increasing by roughly 10-fold. This is partly driven by a huge reduction in rocket launch costs due to the reusability of SpaceX rockets. But broadband satellite internet projects, such as Starlink and Amazon Leo, also require thousands of satellites in orbit to provide a functional service.
SpaceX now plans to send one million more satellites into orbit for space-based data centres, which would significantly alter the appearance of the sky. Other planned satellite constellations, such as E-Space’s Cinnamon and China’s CTC-1 and 2, would add hundreds of thousands more satellites into orbit, compounding the problem.
The ESO study states that no more than 100,000 faint satellites, below naked eye visibility, should orbit Earth...