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The FCC just gave Starlink The green light to dramatically expand the massive satellite constellation, which could provide millions of Americans with faster internet. But scientists I spoke with are sounding the alarm, saying an additional 7,500 satellites in uncharted orbits could have wide-ranging consequences, including negatively impacting Earth’s atmosphere.
That approval to deploy more Starlink satellites was never in doubt — Trump’s FCC has consistently sided with Elon Musk’s SpaceX — even though it was only half the number of satellites the company initially ordered.
“I’m glad to see that the FCC isn’t just saying, ‘Get as many as you want.'” Jonathan McDowellan astrophysicist who tracks satellite launches. “The FCC is moving at least somewhat deliberately, although I still have concerns about the environmental impact of these constellations.”
This authorization will double the number of Starlink satellites in orbit to 15,000 by 2031. Lifting familiar distress From scientists on the risk of collisions in the increasingly crowded stratosphere, as well as over-reliance on satellite communications.
“That’s a lot of satellites, but it’s just the beginning,” McDowell said. “They will ask for more. China will put out a lot. Other companies and countries will put things out. We will probably pass the 100,000 mark.”
While there are currently approx 40,000 objects in space Space observation networks like NASA and the European Space Agency follow suit, and there’s a lot of that it’s not tracking. The number of objects in space capable of causing “catastrophic damage” is estimated at more than 1.2 million.
“The challenge is not the large objects that we track. The challenge is always the objects smaller than 10 centimeters that we don’t track,” Vishnu Reddy, a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona, told CNET.
The Federal Communications Commission praises the system
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said in a statement that licensing more Starlink satellites was a “game changer for enabling next-generation services,” touting the benefits to the U.S. economy and Broadband communications At the national level.
“President Trump is restoring America’s technological leadership,” Carr said. “By authorizing 15,000 new, advanced satellites, the FCC has given SpaceX the green light to deliver unprecedented satellite broadband capabilities, promote competition, and help ensure no community is left behind.”
buried in Actual system It’s much more measured language: “While SpaceX requests action on its proposed constellation of 29,988 satellites, we are moving forward incrementally here.”
The FCC order predicts that approval will “significantly improve services to customers in America,” even going so far as to say it will provide “fast service, including identical download and upload speeds.”
The FCC is also allowing SpaceX to move its satellites lower into orbit, which is expected to happen Improved latency issues That has haunted Starlink for years, but could make it more vulnerable to solar storms.
Starlink has received FCC approval for an additional 7,500 V2 satellites.
An increasingly crowded orbit
The doomsday scenario with all these satellites moving is… Kessler syndromeIt is a hypothetical scenario in which space debris triggers a chain reaction: one space object collides with another, creating more debris until Earth’s orbit becomes so filled with space junk that satellites can no longer function.
To ensure that Starlink satellites do not come into contact with this space debris, SpaceX requires that they perform the maneuver when the probability of collision is 3 in 10 million. This standard was actually new Starlink Status Report July 2025 With the Federal Communications Commission (FCC); Previously, it was 1 in 1 million.
Despite this higher threshold, Starlink satellites conducted 144,404 risk mitigation maneuvers in the six-month period ending in May 2025, a number Increase about 200% from the previous six months. There were 148,696 maneuvers in Increase about 200%.
This means one maneuver every 106 seconds, and this is for Starlink only. The other active payloads currently in orbit, numbering about 5,000, do not publicly announce the number of maneuvers they perform. This large number of maneuvers is both a good and a bad thing: they have been able to avoid collisions so far, but the increased motion makes it difficult for other operators to know where the satellites are.
“If everyone on the street was trying to avoid getting hit, we would eventually have accidents,” Reddy told me in a previous interview.
This was described as a “tropical house of cards” in One recent paperwhere researchers estimate that it would take 5.5 days for a catastrophic collision to occur if there were no maneuvers or a severe loss of situational awareness. In 2018, a year before Starlink launched its first satellites, that number was 164 days. (The paper has not been peer-reviewed.)
“What would happen if there was a solar event where we lost control of the satellites? It would be bad,” Reddy said.
The more satellites are launched, the greater the risks. Events such as A Starlink satellite explosion in December Or break up a Chinese rocket body in 2024 All of this tips the scales a little more towards doomsday scenarios.
Effects on the atmosphere
Starlink satellites generally last about five years. Next, it is “deorbited,” which is a nice way of saying that it is directed into Earth’s atmosphere to burn up. Since Starlink launched its first satellites in 2019, we have yet to see the effects on a large scale.
“We don’t understand the chemistry of re-entry when they dump it, and to what extent that impacts the atmosphere,” McDowell said.
But the early signs aren’t great. One study 2024Funded by NASA and published in Geophysical Research Letters, they found that a 550-pound satellite releases about 66 pounds of aluminum oxide nanoparticles during reentry. These oxides have increased eightfold from 2016 to 2022. Gen2 satellites approved by the FCC weigh about 1,800 pounds.
“This is a concern primarily because of the large number of satellites that will be launched in the future,” said Joseph Wang, one of the study’s authors. He told CNET at the time. “We expected an annual increase of more than 640% above the normal level (of aluminum oxide nanoparticles). Based on this prediction, we are very concerned.”
Samples Taken in 2023 Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found that about 10% of particle debris in the stratosphere contains traces of metals from rockets and satellites. They estimate this could grow to 50% or more “based on the number of satellites launched into low Earth orbit.”
What impact this will have is still an open question, but there is no doubt that the massive increase in the number of satellites – and their inevitable deorbit – will dramatically change the composition of the stratosphere.
Risks of solar storms in low orbits
One factor not discussed in the recent FCC approval is the increased risk of solar storms destroying low-orbit satellites, according to Sasha Meinrath, a communications professor at Pennsylvania State University.
Over the course of 2026, Starlink will lower 4,400 satellites from 342 miles above the Earth’s surface to 298 miles. According to a January 1 post on X From Michael Nichols, Vice President of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX. The new FCC order allows Starlink to move satellites as low as 211 miles.
“I’m more concerned just because we keep moving them lower and lower,” Meinrath told CNET. “There’s a reason why people say, ‘Oh, this provides better statistics for their performance.’ There’s a reason it’s empty. It’s because of the risk.”
The effects of solar storms on low-Earth orbit satellites can range from degraded network performance to the satellite being deorbited in extreme cases, according to Researchers at the University of California, Irvine. Solar storms can create atmospheric clouds, causing Starlink satellites to independently adjust their altitude in response. Nearby satellites make their own adjustments, and it may take three to four days before they settle into their original positions.
“Autonomous driving algorithms, optimized for normal operations, may inadvertently amplify the effects of storms by triggering cascades of orbital adjustments,” say the UC Irvine researchers.
This is largely a concern in terms of network performance, but if we increasingly rely on satellites to deliver essential services, the impact of solar storms could be incredibly serious, Meinrath said.
“In the same way that you have wired infrastructure hanging on poles, you have to watch out for things like wind gusts or ice storms. Solar storms are also inevitable,” he said. “This real issue, as far as I know from the recordings, remains unaddressed.”
It’s not just Starlink
Having 15,000 new satellites in the sky is a big deal — it’s more than the number of active satellites currently in orbit — but Starlink isn’t the only entity active in space.
“The other really important development is that China just applied for another 200,000 satellites with the International Telecommunication Union,” McDowell said, referring to the International Telecommunication Union, a UN agency that facilitates the assignment of satellite orbits.
Some observers are skeptical The Chinese government would actually reach that huge number, describing the registration as more of a land grab than a feasible plan. Under ITU rules, China will have seven years to launch its first satellite, then another seven years to complete the constellation.
“SpaceX is not as big a concern as the Chinese groups, which are worse on almost all fronts,” McDowell said.
China currently has more than 1,300 satellites in orbit, according to A US Space Force Fact Sheet. Amazon’s Leo project, formerly known as Project Kuiper, has also launched about 200 of the proposed 3,236 satellites.
More satellites will improve connectivity for millions
Although Starlink is often better than other options in rural areas, it has not consistently delivered The FCC’s definition of broadband Internet Such as 100Mbps download speed and 20Mbps upload speed. It’s also suffered on the latency front, with the latest data from speed testing site Ookla showing an average lag of 45ms – which is about 4 times higher than The average American gets. (Disclosure: Ookla is owned by the same company as CNET, Ziff Davis.)
Starlink has a good argument that it will reduce latency by moving satellites lower. Approval would also address the other major hurdle: capacity. analysis From Pennsylvania State University’s
“Moving all of these satellites down into their orbital envelopes will reduce response time and allow for additional capacity,” Meinrath told CNET. “When you read between the lines, you say, ‘Oh, it’s an implicit acknowledgment that there are actually some severe limitations on capabilities, and they’re trying to figure out how to solve those limitations.’”
While concerns about increasingly crowded skies are worth taking seriously, the benefits of modern high-speed Internet connectivity are also worth taking seriously. Agencies like Federal Communications Commission and Samhsa They even go so far as to describe broadband access as a “highly determinant” of health due to its impact on education, employment, and access to health care.
Over the past several years, I’ve talked to dozens of people living in rural areas who described Starlink as an absolute game-changer for them.
“Get a Starlink dish and plug it in,” Eben Hobson, a photographer in Utqiagvik, Alaska, told me. “And two minutes later, you have the whole world again in the palm of your hand.” In a previous interview.
It’s no exaggeration to say that these Starlink communications have changed the lives of millions of people around the world. But just because their satellites are floating hundreds of miles away in space, doesn’t mean there’s no danger to us here on Earth.