NASA has concerns over SpaceX’s plans for 30,000 Starlink satellites

NASA has raised concerns about SpaceX‘s ambitious proposal to deploy 30,000 satellites for its Starlink constellation.

Elon Musk‘s SpaceX previously received authorisation for about 12,000 satellites to be launched into space to offer broadband internet.

Now, it has requested authorisation for a second-generation megaconstellation, made up of 30,000 satellites. 

But NASA has said peppering low Earth orbit with so many satellites could ‘impact science and human spaceflight missions’. It also warned the move could lead to a ‘significant increase’ in collisions. 

Musk seems to be doubling down on his plans for the constellation, despite ongoing criticism related to the project that they will clutter up space. 

Many of the satellites launched during the Starlink project’s history have stopped working and are now just obsolete space junk in low Earth orbit, at risk of crashing into other spacecraft – including those carrying humans.  

In December, Musk was criticised by China over two ‘close encounters’ between his satellites and Beijing’s space station Tiangong, currently home to three people.

‘NASA has concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events and possible impacts to NASA’s science and human spaceflight missions,’ the agency wrote the Federal Communications Commission.

NASA noted there are currently 25,000 total objects tracked on-orbit, about 6,100 of which are below 370 miles (600 km).

SpaceX’s second generation (Gen2) expansion ‘would more than double the number of tracked objects in orbit and increase the number of objects below 600km over five-fold,’ NASA added.

Jonathan McDowell at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who is also part of the American Astronomical Society panel examining the impacts of satellites on astronomy, has echoed NASA’s concerns.  

‘We’ve been concerned with having these large numbers of satellites that interfere with astronomical observations,’ McDowell said. 

‘I think we need a little more experience with the several thousand operating satellites before we can ramp up to the tens of thousands.’

Amazon, which has pledged to spend at least $10billion to build 3,236 such satellites through its Project Kuiper program, separately raised concerns with the FCC about SpaceX’s plan.

Under SpaceX’s application ‘at least hundreds-and potentially more than ten thousand’ SpaceX satellites could operate at the same altitudes as Amazon’s Project Kuiper, the tech giant’s rival to the Starlink project.

Similarly, Project Kuiper involves the launch of thousands of satellites into orbit where they will beam high-speed internet down to Earth. 

Amazon warned ‘the effect of this orbital overlap would be a dramatic increase in risks and other burdens on the Kuiper System’ and asked the FCC to impose ‘reasonable conditions’. 

While extremely costly to deploy, satellite technology can provide high-speed internet for people who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach.

The technology could also be a critical backstop when hurricanes or other natural disasters disrupt communication.  

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.   

Elon Musk’s company has only just launched a fresh batch of 49 Starlink satellites Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on February 3.

However, it revealed this week that up to 40 of this latest batch will end up being destroyed following an intense geomagnetic storm.

A geomagnetic storm is a major disturbance of Earth’s magnetosphere – the area around Earth controlled by the planet’s magnetic field. 

To assuage worries, SpaceX also said the deorbiting satellites pose ‘zero collision risk’ with other satellites, so no parts will hit the ground or cause injury. 

As of the February 3 launch, a total of 2,091 Starlink satellites have been launched since the first couple in February 2018, although many of this total have failed or been decommissioned in space.

On January 18, SpaceX marked its 2,000th Starlink satellite launched into space with another batch of 49 satellites. 

These all successfully deployed shortly after launch, SpaceX confirmed at the time. 

Travis Longcore, a professor at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, has previously called Starlink ‘a crime against humanity’.

‘It robs us of the skies of our ancestors to every corner of the Earth,’ Professor Longcore said.  

Another four Starlink launches are set for February alone; the next one, on February 14, will send 51 satellites into orbit, while the other three will each send 49. 

NASA and SpaceX have actually been working together in recent years; NASA astronauts are being transported to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. 

The collaboration has involved the first launch of American astronauts from US soil in nine years, since the space agency quit flying space shuttles in 2011. 

More recently, on November 11, 2021, NASA launched Crew 3, the third fully-fledged ‘operational’ crew NASA and SpaceX have flown to the ISS. The crew successfully reached the ISS about a day after the launch.   

Crew 4 – the fourth crewed operational NASA flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft – is set to launch on April 15, 2022. 

It will carry a four-person crew to the ISS – NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell N. Lindgren and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.