Well, that kind of sucks: https://www.engadget.com/science/space/a-potential-starlink-competitor-just-got-fcc-clearance-to-launch-4000-satellites-143905076.html

@sundogplanets

I'm old enough to remember the first satellite. Sputnik, 1957.

I could tune my AM radio to hear it beep as it passed overhead.

We've had so much benefit from them, for communications and sensing.

70 years from proof of concept, through utility, to #enshittification.

@bonaventuresoft

@sundogplanets It's time to stop approving commercial satellite launches unless the applicants demonstrate the ability to remove each satellite from orbit in a way that isn't simply deorbiting the thing into the atmosphere.

@sundogplanets

Tragic. ‍️

@sundogplanets ️

@sundogplanets

these asshats are gonna block out the sun.

@sundogplanets the Kessler syndrome edges ever closer

@sundogplanets Kessler Syndrome, here we go

@sundogplanets Screw it, I'm going to launch MY OWN satellite giga-constellation called Damocles Orbital. It'll be ten thousand satellites that light up like a god damn party bus, each carrying a metric ton of glitter, which they will dump into the atmosphere upon reentry and/or when they inevitably collide with other satellites.

Damocles Orbital: Make the inevitable ablation cascade sparkly and fun!

@sundogplanets

"4,000 more sats approved" by the FCC.

I wonder if the FAA and NTSB have approved "4,000 more inevitable fiery balls of molten aluminium slag, randomly falling through passenger aircraft flightpaths"?

Elon Musk knows that the day will come where a Starlink satellite is going to kill everyone on an aircraft. It's inevitable.

But does Musk realise the criminal charges that follow may result in him dying in jail?

@sundogplanets Ugh. Do the people issuing permits just look at dollar signs? Do they even read science journals?