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In September, Elon Musk’s SpaceX hit the milestone of launching its 2,000th Starlink satellite in this year alone, according to Spaceflight Now – but there’s concerns about what all these giant lumps of metal could mean for Earth when it comes to re-entries.
Per astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell’s website Planet4589, there are more than 8,000 Starlink satellites orbiting overhead, and in comments made to EarthSky in October, one to two satellites from Musk’s company are falling back to Earth every single day.
He said: “Not even counting Starlink, we have a couple of satellite re-entries a day. Usually, they’re quite small, like cube sets, and burn up completely.
“A couple of times a month, we have a larger satellite – a non-Starlink satellite – that re-enters. So every few months, there’s a report of a piece of space hardware that’s re-entered that ends up on the ground as a significant piece of debris.
“Several times a year, we’re taking these pot shots at people on the Earth, and fortunately so far missed … So far, we’ve been very lucky, but it won’t last.”
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Back in September 2023, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a report which said: “By 2035, if the expected large constellation growth is realized and debris from Starlink satellites survive reentry, the total number of hazardous fragments surviving reentries each year is expected to reach 28,000, and the casualty expectation, the number of individuals on the ground predicted to be injured or killed by debris surviving the reentries of satellites being disposed from these constellations, would be 0.6 per year, which means that one person on the planet would be expected to be injured or killed every two years.”
Yikes.
In a letter seen by CNN, SpaceX clapped back at the FAA report by claiming it relied on a “deeply flawed analysis that falsely characterizes reentry disposal risks associated with Starlink”.
“To be clear, SpaceX’s satellites are designed and built to fully demise during atmospheric reentry during disposal at end of life, and they do so,” the letter reportedly read.
Then, in February last year, SpaceX announced it would carry out “controlled descents” of around 100 satellites, saying in a statement: “These satellites are currently manoeuvrable and serving users effectively, but the Starlink team identified a common issue in this small population of satellites that could increase the probability of failure in the future.”
SpaceX has been approached by indy100 for comment.
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