* Altitude is essentially the same 6300km vs 6700km, so satellites aren't signficantly more spread out. * Those 20k planes don't all fly at the same time. * R

* Altitude is essentially the same 6300km vs 6700km, so satellites aren't signficantly more spread out. * Those 20k planes don't all fly at the same time. * Retired / Broken planes don't fly, satellites may still be on orbit for decades. * There are no debris flying in the sky at 11000 km/h * Planes can adjust their path at will instantly for avoidance. * Planes can be grounded instantly if we need to. Orbital space is a limited resource that gets depleted very fast and recovers very slowly. We are talking about launching in the next ten years 5x the total number of satellites that were ever launched so far. I am sure humans in 50 years would still be able to launch a thing or two in space as well. This is an actual problem, and unlike for planes, once the problem is apparent, you can't just take some of them out of the sky while you figure out a solution.