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What Happened to the Night Sky?
SpaceX’s Starlink fleet and new commercial launches have pushed the number of satellites in low Earth orbit to 15,000, scientists and advocates say.
- During a 20-minute walk in Denver two months ago, a resident observed seven satellites crossing the night sky, a dramatic shift from the 1990s when spotting even one satellite was rare.
- Today, 15,000 satellites orbit Earth, up from fewer than 1,000 in the 1990s, with SpaceX owning 10,000 Starlink satellites—more than 60% of the total, according to Scientific American.
- Mike Pach, secretary of DarkSky Colorado, expressed 'grave concerns' about the proposals, stressing the number of satellites being proposed will 'forever change humanity's relationship with the night sky.'
- Amazon announced an $11 billion deal this month with Globalstar to launch thousands more satellites, while SpaceX has proposed to the FCC deploying one million additional satellites.
- A 2021 study in The Astronomical Journal predicted 65,000 satellites would account for one in 15 visible light points in the sky, though no studies predict the visual impact of one million.
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What happened to the night sky?
Ten years ago there were about 1,500 satellites. Today about 15,000 satellites cross the night sky and one company is proposing a million more.
·Spokane, United States
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Astronomers warn that satellites could soon outnumber stars in the night sky
The night sky is changing, and travellers may already have noticed it. What once looked like a quiet field of stars is now increasingly crossed by moving points of light. These are satellites from projects such as SpaceX’s Starlink network. Since the first launch in 2019, their numbers have grown quickly. For those who travel to remote places to enjoy nature and stargazing, this shift is becoming harder to ignore. Starlink is a system of satelli…
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Total News Sources16
Leaning Left1Leaning Right0Center14Last UpdatedBias Distribution93% Center
Bias Distribution
- 93% of the sources are Center
93% Center
C 93%
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