Agency says SpaceX craft could hinder International Space Station
  • sirspate@lemmy.caEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    It’s already a bit of a mess to manage, especially if you include the debris. Back in 2007 China blew up a satellite, and as of a few years ago that represented almost a third of all tracked space debris… (it has its own wikipedia page) If these jokers ever start deliberately blowing up each others’ satellites, we could end up in a situation where space becomes inaccessible.

    • Patches@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      If these jokers ever start deliberately blowing up each others’ satellites, we could end up in a situation where space becomes inaccessible.

      We don’t know who struck first, us or them, but we know that it was us that scorched the sky. At the time, they were dependent on solar power and it was believed that they would be unable to survive without an energy source as abundant as the sun.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.socialEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      There’s wildly different orbits. Starlink flies low and has a decaying orbit due to atmospheric drag meaning nothing is going to stay up there for very long. They designed them to just burn up on reentry after ~5 years. Stuff in much higher orbits are more of an issue because they don’t experience the same amount of drag.