SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday downplayed concerns of too many Starlink satellites orbiting Earth and causing pollution.
What Happened: “A planet is not meant to look like this,” an X user wrote on Saturday in response to a representational video of thousands of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth. “Instead of ripping more resources from the earth to shit out into space, come thru and take joy in what we alone have among the stars,” he added.
Musk responded to the comment on Sunday and said, “If the satellites were rendered to scale, you'd see nothing, as they are much smaller than a pixel in size.”
“It's like being upset at birds in the sky!,” Musk added.
Following Musk’s comment, the user took to X yet again to say that Musk completely missed his concern.
“That’s not the size of the satellites to scale and you completely missed the point because you don’t understand metaphorical language. What an extremely rough thing to witness, as an adult among other adults,” he wrote.
The user also alleged that he was being harassed over his comment. “Oh geez they’re so mad about me not liking their space trash,” he wrote. “I never been harassed thru venmo of all places before this one.”
Why It Matters: The X user is not the only one to have concerns about the rising number of objects in orbit around Earth.
The CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA) Tory Bruno, a competitor to Elon Musk‘s SpaceX, said in a blog post last year that orbital debris is a pressing matter that needs immediate attention. Bruno acknowledged that while the space community was aware of the risks associated with irresponsible behavior in orbit, not much has been done about it.
In March 2023, scientists from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Plymouth called for a legally binding treaty to safeguard Earth's orbit from the negative impacts of the space industry's rapid growth. They warned that failure to achieve global consensus on effective governance could render parts of Earth's orbit unusable.
According to an analysis by astronomer Jonathan McDowell, SpaceX has launched over 6,500 Starlink satellites to orbit to date of which over 6000 are working.
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