(cont'd from yesterday's post)
America's Space Force has a program in place to mitigate collision risk. Its 18th Space Defense Squadron monitors and tracks "all artificial objects in Earth’s orbit to ensure the safety of our satellites, astronauts, and space exploration endeavors.”
Satellite operators use "AI-powered maneuver planning systems [to] analyze conjunction data and suggest safe trajectory adjustments in real-time."
Clearly, blowing up a satellite (yesterday's video) would turn one dangerous object into many and is decidedly not the right thing to do.
Taking responsibility for what you send into space is the right thing to do. So, Starlink (as the largest launcher by far) has a plan. They monitor their satellites and de-orbit the ones that fail in a controlled, safe way. In the 6 months ending May 31, 2026, they "successfully executed controlled atmospheric deorbit" on 216 satellites. As they descended, eventually there was "total thermal destructive burn-up."
Watch the video to see how Starlink actually works to deliver internet access:
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