Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost–and people will die–later this decade

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/space-debris-expert-orbits-will-be-lost-and-people-will-die-later-this-decade/

by Deinos • 4 years ago

19 3 4 years ago

kristianp• 4 years ago

Interest snippet from the expert:

When I speak to people, they say, "Do we need to see something really bad happen?" I'm like, worse than Russia blowing up its satellite in this orbit, which clearly has an impact on the United States through Starlink? When you talk to SpaceX, it's very clear that the destruction of this Russian satellite likely had the intent of harmfully interfering with the Starlink satellites. They've already had to maneuver several thousand times out of the way of the debris. It's an impact to their operations. That was not random. That was not haphazard.

Mountain_Skies• 4 years ago

Logical and expected outcome of SpaceX choosing to become a military asset in an active military conflict involving a country that has the power to interfere with their operations and possibly destroy their birds if desired.

mediumdeviation• 4 years ago

Russia shot down the satellite in November 2021, so that is very unlikely to be their motivation unless they have some extraordinary level of insight that forecasts Starlink's role in the conflict.

Space debris expert: Orbits will be lost–and people will die–later this decade

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