Starlink VP confirms ‘dangerously close’ Chinese launch incident — close call saw satellite pass within 200 meters of Starlink travelling at over 17,400mph

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• Teal@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Whoa, 200 meters is a close call for sure!

  On a related topic, SpaceX is littering the low earth orbit space in a major way. From the link above:

  There are approximately 12,000 active satellites now in LEO space, with probably 8,000 operated by Starlink.

  Get off our LEO Elon! <shakes fist in air>

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  • Emi@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Feel like launching stuff into space by private companies should he illegal/heavily regulated.

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    • ManixT@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      It is heavily regulated

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  • Yankee_Self_Loader@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Image

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    • Teal@lemmy.zip ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      This is what I’ve become. 😄

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  • Perspectivist@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    LEO is not a permanent orbit. There’s atmospheric drag. I believe Starlink satellites deorbit in 5 to 10 years. Oldest ones are already falling back to earth (burning in the atmosphere)

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    • crapwittyname@feddit.uk ⁨10⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      This is a problem as well. As the satellites deorbit they vaporise, leaving aluminium oxide nanoparticles (and other metallic gases, volatiles etc) in the atmosphere, destroying ozone and building up over decades.
      So it’s not just the light pollution, or the ruining of ground based astronomy. Or even the dangerous amount of clutter polluting LEO, making spaceflight even more risky. Starlink is bad news for the environment, but it’s to be expected since we’ve seen how carelessly spacex have destroyed the ecosystem in Texas.

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    • AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      While true, they continuously replenish the ones that fall back to earth. I wouldn’t be surprised if their current launch pace is higher than the amount falling out of orbit. That’s not even mentioning the impact they have on ground-based astronomy.

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• Ferrous@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Musk is trying to induce a Kessler event so that he can sell us a solution.

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  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The funny/horrible part is that his solution will probably make the problem even worse

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