Elon Musk’s fleet of low-orbiting Starlink satellites dot space, leave astronomers upset

Two days after Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched 60 satellites in May as part of a mission to bring quick internet service to people worldwide, astronomers noticed something different.

As some of the satellites zipped past the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, telescopes trained on the night sky captured streaks of reflected sunlight that marred their view of a far-off star system.

Astronomers now worry that the vast number of communications spacecraft planned, including nearly 12,000 of Musk’s Starlink fleet, will shine so brightly that they will interfere with research that depends on delicate visual observations of distant galaxies and nearby asteroids. The new satellites will fly lower than many traditional craft, and will arrive in unprecedented numbers – all told, more than double the roughly 5,000 satellites that are circling Earth now.

“We just happened to be pointed in the right direction, and Starlink flew right through it” on May 25, two days after launch, said Jeffrey Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory. The unexpected appearance helped to signal that, as Hall put it, “this is potentially a problem”.

Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp is authorised to launch 11,943 satellites for its Starlink fleet, making it by far the leader in a total of nearly 13,000 low-Earth orbit satellites currently approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which coordinates trajectories and radio-frequency use. In addition, Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos on Thursday filed to place 3,236 internet-beaming satellites into low-Earth orbit.