New report highlights SpaceX’s skyrocketing pollution problem

SpaceX has a constellation of over 6,000 satellites in orbit right now, providing internet connection to around 3 million users. That’s already a lot, but the number is poised to grow dramatically.

The company has obtained licenses to grow their fleet to over 40,000 satellites over the next several years.These tens of thousands of satellites will be in low Earth Orbit and thus doomed by a rule as inevitable as the law of gravity: What goes up must come down.

Starlink satellites are designed to last only 5 years. They won’t even last as long as a good laptop – and as they burn up in the atmosphere, they could pose a serious risk of pollution.

Launching satellites produces a lot of pollution

Getting a satellite into space in the first place requires rockets. Rockets require fuel, and burning that fuel produces pollution that threatens our health and drives climate change. SpaceX’s rocket fuels produce black carbon, soot, and other pollutants that can trap heat and even threaten our ozone layer. The planned rocket launches to maintain the proposed satellite mega-constellations will release soot in the atmosphere equivalent to 7 million diesel dump trucks circling the globe each year.

Falling satellites can pollute the planet

Then there’s the problem of what happens to satellites once they’ve reached the end of their useful life. Once they are decommissioned, satellites leave orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

But burning up doesn’t mean disappearing. When the metals and other components in a burn they get turned into gas, smoke and debris This adds up to a lot of material. If the proposed increase to the number of satellites in orbit goes through, we will have 29 tons of satellites re-entering and burning up in our atmosphere every single day.

That’s like a Jeep Cherokee entering our skies every hour. 

And space junk doesn’t always burn up in the atmosphere before hitting the ground. Pieces of metal from space reaching the ground and harming people or property is currently extremely rare, but not unheard of. A piece of material discarded from the International Space Station plummeted into a home in Naples, Florida in June.

As the amount of satellites in low Earth orbit increases, so too do the odds of pieces of decommissioned satellites hitting the planet. A more crowded orbit means satellites and other objects are more likely to bump into each other and potentially create dangerous debris.

Satellite pollution poses risks to the magnetosphere and ozone layer

Scientists are worried about “conductive particulates” from burned satellites lingering around our planet. High levels of aluminum in the atmosphere could disrupt the Earth’s magnetic field, which shields us from cosmic radiation. Pollution from reentering satellites also has the potential to damage our ozone layer. 

How we can protect our atmosphere from space junk

One thing is clear: More foresight and regulation is needed before we crowd our Earth’s orbit with thousands of satellites.

That’s why we’re calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pause new satellite internet low earth orbit satellite launches until it conducts environmental reviews for satellite mega-constellations. The FCC also needs to end the environmental categorical exclusion of satellites.

We’re in a short window of time when we can prevent making a mess of space and our atmosphere rather than spend decades cleaning it up.