Now, SpaceX is the manufacturer of half the active satellites. This is why it might be a concern.

 Now, SpaceX is the manufacturer of half the active satellites. This is why it might be a concern.

There are more satellites in low Earth orbit than can be managed by laws.

Half of all active satellites in Earth orbit are now Starlink internet satellites from SpaceX, whose fleet is expanding quickly.

The aerospace company added 21 additional satellites to its Starlink fleet for high-speed internet on February 27. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell's study of data from SpaceX and the U.S. Space Force revealed that there were now 3,660 operational Starlink satellites in total, which is almost 50% of the over 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. At the same time, astronomers have been cautioning that the brilliant satellites may obstruct their view of the cosmos by producing streaks on telescope photographs 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 kilometres 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.