OPINION: Junkyard in the sky?

The booming artificial satellite industry is good news if you have stocks in this technology. But likely bad news if you are a star gazer. Your views of the havens at night might be interrupted by non-heavenly objects passing by your binoculars.

As of this writing, there are 15,868 human-made satellites in orbit. About 12,900 are operational. The others are inactive or out of service from age or malfunctions. SpaceX has over 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit. Other companies are jumping on the bandwagon. “There are plans to put nearly two million satellites in orbit.” ¹

Benefits

Most of these satellites are in low-earth orbit, a region up to 2,000 kilometers (1,242.7 miles) above the planet. The low orbits yield short propagation delays of signals between satellites and earth stations. Of course, there is no need for expensive wires/cables, accompanied with rights-of-way regulations. All of which translates into these additional benefits.

• Expanded Internet and phone service to remote locations.

• Better oceanic communications.

• Better emergency services.

• Better warfare operations.

• More TV channels!

Littering the Sky

Environmentalists say humans are littering and damaging earth, and have been doing so since the Industrial Age. One jokester on TV said that we might as well stay in practice and do the same with the earth’s sky. Some critics have said humans are in the process of making the sky a junk yard.

The sky is a big place. It seems to this non-expert that it can hold a lot of objects. However, astronomers cite growing problems with artificial satellites.

• Congestion of orbiting rocket parts, defunct satellites, and debris fragments.

• Increasing difficulty of tracking so many objects. There are over 1.2 million objects in orbit between 1 and 10 cm in size. There are over 140 million objects floating around that are smaller than 1 cm. (1cm = 0.3933 in).

• All are capable of damaging spacecraft.

• Some satellite industry experts have said there could be between about 10 million to 100 million satellites orbiting earth in the future. That might disrupt views of the man in the Moon.

• Jokes aside, recent studies claim that adding half a million satellites in orbit “...would mean that almost every single telescope image taken anywhere in the world would contain a satellite.” The prominent astronomer, Samantha Lawler said, “We wouldn’t be able to do astronomy. There’s just no way.” The reason? Mega-constellations “...can ruin optical and near-infrared images, contaminate radio data, and threaten both ground- and space-based astronomy.” ²

Given the certain growth in the number of artificial satellites that will be orbiting the planet, the quantity of debris floating around in the sky will number in the billions. The experts assume that with so many satellites, even a tiny number of mishaps would lead to chaos. Hundreds of thousands of collisions would happen each year, even unleashing [more] hazardous high-speed orbital shrapnel.

However, no one knows what the future holds for low orbiting satellites. Some say there is a capacity limit, but the actual number is not known. There are uncertainties about satellites and debris being pulled down by earth’s gravity (some do not completely “burn up” on descent). There is the ever-present danger of collisions in space. As well, there are the advances being made in tracking objects to avoid collisions. For example, SpaceX’s Starlink, must execute an average of 1,000 daily maneuvers to avoid possible collisions.

Nonetheless, there is something almost mythical and certainly mysterious about viewing the heavens on a clear night. It keeps this writer in wonder about the universe. Will millions of human-built machines cloud this view, an awesome creation that we are so far from understanding? Let’s have a child answer this question, with a slight change to a famous nursery rhyme:

Starlight, starbright. First star I’ll see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, actually see a star.

On that hopeful note, I recommend a daily dose of night air to view the sky. The vast vista is a wonder to behold.

¹ Unless noted otherwise, direct quotes are sourced from Jonathan O’Callaghan, “Battle for the Night Sky,” Scientific American, September 2026 

² Microsoft’s Copilot. Key-in  

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For information on Uyless Black’s background and writings, go to UylessBlack.com