The Digester

SpaceX’s January 2026 filing to add up to one million Starlink satellites would need tens of thousands of launches, create sustained pollution and debris risks, and could obliterate the night sky for professional astronomers and casual stargazers alike.

SpaceX filed on January 30, 2026 for permission to add as many as 1,000,000 additional Starlink satellites.
Starlink already makes up more than half of active satellites and is approaching 10,000 in orbit.
At about 2 metric tons per satellite and a realistic Starship payload near 100 metric tons, deploying 1,000,000 satellites would require roughly 20,000 launches.
Routine replacement and failures could mean an ongoing launch rate on the order of 10 Starship flights per day.
Large-scale launches and reentries would increase CO2 and upper atmosphere pollution and contribute to sky glow.
A much larger satellite population sharply raises collision and debris risk and could trigger catastrophic Kessler syndrome.
Roughly 500,000 satellites would contaminate essentially every Hubble observation and would severely degrade ground-based astronomy; other companies and countries are planning large constellations and proposals for giant space mirrors would add light pollution.

SpaceX filing for up to 1 million satellites raises climate, debris and astronomy alarms

Articles