Starlink satellites ‘a giant uncontrolled experiment in atmospheric chemistry’

Musk’s Starlink designed to dump polluting space debris on Earth?

Elon Musk’s Starlink network is reported to be facing a major setback as 120 satellites fell from orbit in January 2025. This incident raises concerns about satellite reliability, space debris, and the future of global internet coverage. Did something go wrong, and what does this mean for the Starlink, Musk and more importantly, what environmental impact is this having on Earth’s atmosphere?

‘UNPRECEDENTED’ STARLINK REENTRIES

“What we’re observing is a giant uncontrolled experiment in atmospheric chemistry”

Space Weather outlet reports:

What goes up, must come down–which could be a problem when you’re launching thousands of satellites. Since 2018, SpaceX has placed more than 7,000 Starlink satellites into Earth orbit, and now they are starting to come down. In January alone, more than 120 Starlinks deorbited, creating a shower of fireballs.

“The sustained rate of daily reentries is unprecedented,” says Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics who tracks satellites. “They are retiring and incinerating about 4 or 5 Starlinks every day.”

Planners have long known this would happen. First generation (Gen1) Starlink satellites are being retired to make way for newer models. “More than 500 of the 4700 Gen1 Starlinks have now reentered,” says McDowell.

When Starlinks reenter, they disintegrate before hitting the ground, adding metallic vapors to the atmosphere. A study published in 2023 found evidence of the lingering debris. In February 2023, NASA flew a WB-57 aircraft 60,000 feet over Alaska to collect aerosols. 10% of the particles contained aluminum and other metals from the “burn-up” of satellites.

What we’re observing is a giant uncontrolled experiment in atmospheric chemistry. The demise of just one Gen1 Starlink satellite produces about 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of aluminum oxide, a compound that eats away at the ozone layer. A new study finds these oxides have increased 8-fold between 2016 and 2022, and the recent surge is increasing the pollution even more.

Source: Space Weather, Feb 5, 2025. https://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=05&month=02&year=2025

See also: Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 51, Issue 11. June 16, 2024. ‘Potential Ozone Depletion From Satellite Demise During Atmospheric Reentry’. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024GL109280

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This is bad for the atmosphere

Anthony Leong (CEN Admin) observes:

Ojeda’s commentary provides a “cut through and no nonsense analysis of the truth! I learned a lot, so thank you. “

“Exposing the evil of Musk and the Orange Baboon, and opening the eyes of the world to what will happen in this administration’s reign, may help mitigate this disaster which has infected the world.”The commentary below is reposted from Richard Ojeda

( Ojeda is a retired Major in the US Army and a Former State Democrat Senator).

This is bad for the atmosphere, we’re finding. But this is as I understood it a designed feature not an unanticipated problem with them

The starlink satellites are meant to service for about 5 years, and then “deorbit” – that is, burn up in the atmosphere. They started launching in 2019, so the ones launched then and in 2020 are due now to deorbit. Some will also simply fail for other reasons before their planed service period ends.

They have something just shy of 7,000 and counting in orbit. Starlink is averaging thousands of satellites per year, typically carrying 60 or more per rocket.

When you’re dealing with numbers like this those failed units and the ones being decommissioned at their end of service are going to start to look like bigger numbers.

So yeah, it’s looking like these things burning up in the atmosphere isn’t Innocuous, they’re initiating a whole lot of chemistry in the atmosphere that we have no idea about, or how it’s going to impact things.

Wildly irresponsible and SpaceX has also been flaunting Environmental Protections at Starbase as well so they’re proving to be a pretty typical billionaire lead bad actor. And this isn’t even touching on Elon’s Shenanigans with the new Administration.

[Some seem to think] having these things deorbit is some sort of surprise? A setback and not their as designed decommissioning process? That is misleading and inaccurate.

If you want to cast aspersions on them then do it with the facts. The business model for this entire venture is incredibly negligent and exploitive when it comes to thinking about its impacts on a wide spectrum of issues. These aren’t unexpected flaws they are built-in design features.

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China Environment News on Facebook, Feb 9, 2025. https://www.facebook.com/groups/china.environment.news/posts/9181917201862558/