Starlink satellite accused of 'can be deadly'

Specifically, in the US Civil Aviation Administration (FAA) newspaper, the prospect was presented: "The sky may not fall on our heads, but satellites will."

According to the report, by 2035, SpaceX will significantly increase the number of satellites in its Starlink system. Then, these devices will return to the atmosphere after their expiration date. The remaining fragments will fall to the Earth, expected to amount to 28,000 pieces per year.

To estimate the level of loss, every 2 years there will be one person on the ground affected (injured or killed) by satellite debris.

The aviation industry is also affected by this threat but at a very low level with the rate of aircraft crashing due to satellite debris being 0.07% by 2035.

Starting from 2019 to October this year, SpaceX launched more than 5,200 Starlink satellites to establish a giant "satellite constellation" system in low Earth orbit. It is expected that this corporation will launch 42,000 satellites globally to transmit internet from space to Earth.

However, the lifespan of each Starlink satellite is only 5 years, so there will be many satellites decommissioned both now and in the future. With these satellites, SpaceX will send them into the atmosphere to completely burn up.

With the FAA report, SpaceX strongly expressed disagreement and asserted that it was wrong to believe that thousands of fragments would bombard the Earth and kill people.

SpaceX said that Starlink satellites are designed so that when they return to Earth's atmosphere, they will be completely burned up. Therefore, these devices pose no risk to people or property on the ground. More than 325 satellites have now been destroyed in this way, and there appear to be no reports of debris being found on the ground, and there have been no injuries or deaths.

Lesley Montoya

Update 17 October 2023