this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2025
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Starlink isn't actually that bad in terms of space junk. They've been actively deorbiting Gen 1 and partially failed ones. The amount that are uncontrolled junk just passively deorbiting is really small.
Starlink total sats launched: 9896
Total down: 1329 (includes Gen 1 disposal and previous failures)
Total failed, decaying: 16
So they currently have 16 junk Starlinks that should be gone in the next few years.
Source.
No starlink is bad. It’s currently deorbiting 1-2 satellites a day, which means half a ton of aluminum and other metals burnt up in the atmosphere. Current ambition mean they will need to start deorbiting 3-5 satellites per day.
We don’t know yet what ecological impact this will have. But I’m having a hard time accepting such wasteful energy and material consumption.
NASA claims the Earth is hit with 48.5 tons of natural meteoric debris every day, much of it being metallic. Somehow that hasn't been an issue in all of history so far.
A ton is such an absurdly insignificant amount of material on a global scale.
Aluminum is not a naturally occurring metal however, but I do get your point. Never knew we received so much already.