State of LEO: The crescendo of opposition to satellite proliferation

The main challenges

In a 2022 report to Congress, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said emissions from increased rocket launches and reentry, as well as from de-orbiting satellites burning up in the atmosphere, could increase the amount of substances like black carbon, carbon dioxide, alumina, nitrogen oxides and chlorine, among others, some of which could contribute to atmospheric warming or to the depletion of the Earth's ozone layer, which protects the planet from harmful ultraviolet radiation.

This could become even more problematic as rocket launches are expected to increase as much as threefold in the future, according to the GAO report.

Incumbent broadband infrastructure experts, accustomed to mountains of red tape and bureaucracy to deploy fiber optics or mobile towers, might be surprised by how relatively easy it is to launch a rocket versus building a communications tower, rocket science notwithstanding.

And space regulations just got thinner.

The FCC, which authorizes the launch of satellites servicing the US, announced in July 22 a renewed set of rules aimed at streamlining the deployment of satellites, saying it is "aggressively moving to support commercial deployment of space infrastructure which promises enormous downstream benefits to American prosperity and security."

Criticism regarding the expansion of constellations — mainly Starlink's but also announced ones such as Amazon.com Inc.'s Amazon LEO project — also includes objections from the astronomical and space exploration communities.

Objections fall mainly along two lines: the satellites reflect sunlight back to Earth and interfere with astronomical observations, and their sheer increase could lead to an unsafe, collision-prone environment outside the planet's atmosphere, increasing the risk for future space missions, or even rendering orbital regions fully unusable, something known as the "Kessler Syndrome."

In June 2026 the S7, a group composed of the national science associations of all seven countries of the Group of Seven (G7) forum, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada, produced the "Large Satellite Constellations: Perspectives and Challenges" report on the impact that the large increase in orbital devices is having on scientific projects such as radioastronomy, as well as its potential for increased atmospheric pollution due to reentry of disabled satellites.

That same increase in density creates the risk of more debris from damaged or de-orbiting satellites surviving reentry and causing problems on land, as well as pollutants such as particulates and chemicals spreading in the upper atmosphere, "with consequences that are not well understood."

The document urged measures to prevent potential collisions between satellites, which could in turn increase the amount of debris in the planet's upper atmosphere and low orbits, making space operations less safe.

Currently, nearly 18,000 satellites are operational and orbiting, with the total growing to 29,181 when including non-operational "debris" satellites, according to orbitalradar.com. As noted, most have been launched since 2020, with Starlink alone owning 61% of the total. "This number is expected to grow and reach a hundred thousand or more during the next decade," the S7 document states.

The US-funded, Chile-based Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the largest optical telescopes in the world, has also expressed concerns that increased LEO traffic is interfering with its flagship project, the 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which maps Earth's southern skies. The satellites appear to the telescope as bright streaks, rendering underlying sources of light, such as stars or distant planets, undetectable and severely degrading observations.

Starlink's mitigation strategies

Starlink has said it has taken most of the scientific concerns into consideration, and that the "V2" and "V2mini" second-generation satellites it started deploying in 2023 include several measures to make them darker and less reflective. It also said it has chosen to operate the vast majority of its satellites at altitudes below 600 kilometers (373 miles), where they are less likely to reflect significant amounts of sunlight.

In a public document, Starlink said its second-gen satellites employ darker, less reflective materials, which are 10 times better at reducing observed brightness than the first-generation. It also uses darker materials on the back (Earth-facing) side of its satellites' solar panels and other components.

A maneuver called "terminator tracking," which minimizes brightness and reduces power available to the devices by 25%, was added specifically to reduce their visibility from the ground.

In 2023, SpaceX and the US National Science Foundation announced an agreement to work together on protecting specific frequencies for radio astronomy. According to the announcement, "This commitment goes beyond the required international protections for the 10.6-10.7 GHz band and enables radio astronomy observations operating in other bands that are not allocated to radio astronomy. This coordination includes avoiding main beam illumination during observations at key radio astronomy facilities that would be impacted."

SpaceX has also said that its satellites will be "propulsively deorbited" after reaching their end of mission time, and are designed to fully disintegrate in atmospheric reentry, thus eliminating the risk of debris falling to the surface.

Already a client? Click on the link to access the full article.