FAA Warns That Starlink Satellite Fragments Might Start Falling From The Sky. – ‘Being hit by one accidentally could rise 61% every year.’

As if we don’t have enough to worry about these days, apparently you need to remember to look up while you’re outside, too. Why?

Well, because pieces of broken-up satellites just might be headed right for you.

Specifically, falling Starlink satellites.

SpaceX’s satellites are stationed in low-Earth orbit, and are intended only to last around five years. After that they begin to “de-orbit,” and are designed with the goal of burning up during their re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere.

If everything goes as planned, there would be no risk to people minding their business on Earth.

The FAA told Congress, though, that they believe around 28,000 Starlink satellite fragments could survive re-entry by the year 2035. The implications, they say, are that the chances of being hit by one accidentally could rise 61% every year.

Which seems uncomfortably high, if you ask me.

The fragments could also pose a risk to aircraft, which would be an obvious catastrophe.

SpaceX is not taking these allegations lying down, as they have plans to launch literal thousands of satellites in the coming years. They claim the FAA’s analysis contains “egregious errors, omissions, and incorrect assumptions.”

The reason for these errors are that the FAA’s analysis was commissioned by the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation, and is based on a 23-year-old study done by NASA. The satellites used for the research are made of different materials than what SpaceX uses now, and were never designed to burn up.

In fact, they claim no one contacted them to find out how this would change things.

“Aerospace did not even seek to review the Starlink demisability analysis, which should have been a fundamental part of its analysis.”

They do have something of a track record to back this up, too – no debris has been found after 325 Starlink satellites were deorbited.

“The fact that the FAA simply accepted the Aerospace report without question or scrutiny raises concerns regarding FAA’s technical competence to responsibly assess and regulate in this area.”

The Federal Communications Commission has accepted the claim that SpaceX’s satellites are fully demisable, and the FAA says they are “reviewing the letter” received from SpaceX on the matter.

So maybe don’t start worrying just yet.

Although someone does always have to be the unlucky first.