Space Environmentalism"#China has applied to launch nearly 200,000 #satellites into Earth orbit, but the move may be an attempt at merely reserving orbital space rather than a genuine effort to build the largest mega-constellation in existence. But even if the application is genuine, achieving it seems to be almost impossible."
"SpaceX's plan to launch an additional 15,000 #satellites for its #Starlink cellular system has sparked opposition and concern from rival companies and environmentalists, who are weighing in after the #FCC opened a public comment period on the proposed constellation."
"#Starlink will begin a reconfiguration of its #satellite constellation by lowering all of its satellites orbiting at around 550 km (342 miles) to 480 km over the course of 2026, Michael Nicolls, SpaceX's vice president of Starlink engineering, said on Thursday. This comes after Starlink said in December that one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in #space, creating a 'small' amount of debris."
Dr. John Barentine FRAS"The data centers ... would be visible at dawn and dusk from Earth, he said, appearing in the sky as about a quarter the width of the moon. But it is too expensive to create space data centers today."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/technology/space-data-centers-ai.html
"New research, led by NASA Ames scientist Alejandro Borlaff, expects that by 2040, about 40 percent of all images from the #Hubble telescope will be contaminated by internet satellite constellations. The value is even higher, reaching 96 percent, for new and upcoming telescopes."
Thanks to Alfredo Carpineti at @iflscience for featuring CSE in this story about the recent Nature paper by Borlaff, Marcum and Howell.
"A #Starlink #satellite has suffered a malfunction that caused it to eject a small amount of debris into Earth’s orbit, according to #SpaceX. ... The statement raises questions about whether the satellite experienced a minor explosion or was struck by something. It also suggests the satellite can no longer maneuver with its built-in propulsion, even if contact is re-established."
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-satellite-malfunctions-ejects-debris-fragments
"Tech billionaires have been obsessed with #space for a long time. Now, as the largest #AI companies race to build more #DataCenters in a frenzied pursuit of profitability, space is looking less like a pet project and more like a commercial opportunity. ... In space, they theorize, the sun’s unlimited rays could provide endless amounts of #energy to power your latest AI-generated Sora video. But it’s not likely to be that easy." (via @theverge)
https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/845453/space-data-centers-astronomers
"Humanity needs to start addressing the growing space junk problem now, before it gets out of hand, scientists stress. 'We have to get serious about this and recognize that, unless we do something, we are in imminent danger of making a whole part of our Earth environment unusable.'"
"As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200 meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude."
Spacecraft from Chinese launch nearly slammed into Starlink satellite, SpaceX says
"As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200 meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude."