SpaceX has asked the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to correct a report warning that components from re-entry satellites of the Starlink constellation could injure or even kill people on Earth.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a regulatory body that licenses launches SatellitesIt released a report titled “Risks Associated with Disposal of Satellites Upon Reentry from Proposed Large Low-Earth Orbit Constellations” on October 5.
The report stated this SpaceXStarlink satellites will account for 85% of the re-entry risk to people on the ground and in aviation Space junk By the middle of the next decade.
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“By 2035, if the expected significant growth of the constellation and removal of debris from it is achieved Starlink Satellites survive re-entry, the total number of hazardous fragments that survive re-entry each year is expected to reach 28,000, and expected casualties, which is the number of individuals on Earth expected to be injured or killed by debris that survives re-entry of satellites that are Its elimination from these planets, “would be 0.6 per year, meaning that one person on the planet is expected to be injured or killed every two years,” a section of the report reads.
There are currently about 5,000 Starlink satellites Low Earth orbit (LEO), which represents the majority of all active LEO satellites at present. SpaceX is building a constellation of 12,000 satellites, with plans to expand Starlink to 40,000 spacecraft.
SpaceX responded forcefully to the report in an Oct. 9 letter, calling claims of the potential risk of injury and death associated with Starlink “unreasonable, unwarranted, and inaccurate,” CNN reported. mentioned.
The letter claims that the report’s analysis, part of which was conducted by the space company, was “deeply flawed” and asserts that it is not applicable to Starlink satellites, because they completely burn up upon re-entering the atmosphere, unlike other previous satellites such as the Iridium spacecraft. , which was mentioned in the report.
“To be clear, SpaceX’s satellites are designed and manufactured to completely disappear during re-entry into the atmosphere during disposal at the end of their lifespan, and they do,” CNN said in the SpaceX letter.
Space news male More than 350 Starlink satellites have been knocked out of orbit, with no reports of their debris reaching Earth, astrophysicist and spaceflight tracker Jonathan McDowell said.
SpaceNews reported that the FAA is reviewing SpaceX’s letter, with CNN noting that an Aerospace Corporation statement issued after SpaceX’s letter said its technical team was in contact with SpaceX and others to “review and update data.”
SpaceX is not the only entity planning and building what is called space Huge constellations In Leo. A recent report by the European Space Agency advertiser Humanity’s behavior in space is “unsustainable” with regard to space debris.
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