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There's a national agency actually enforcing this... Further his point was that if SpaceX disappeared tomorrow, the satellites would all deorbit in under a dec
by mlindner 5y ago
There's a national agency actually enforcing this...
Further his point was that if SpaceX disappeared tomorrow, the satellites would all deorbit in under a decade given their low altitude, which is quite fast compared to disposal rules currently mandated by the US government. Physics determines this, not governments or billionaires.
- gspr 5y agoUnless they happen to collide with something due to their deteriorating, less predictable orbits, of course.
- rtkwe 5y agoEven when their orbit starts decaying they're not generally a direct threat to other satellites as long as they can maneuver. The US maintains a pretty good tracking network that will pick up any whole satellite at least once every few orbits. On that timescale there's not a significant change to the orbit of an object so they remain pretty predictable out far enough for a maneuverable satellite to make a small change to avoid a collision.
- mlindner 5y agoEven if they hit something, those debris would also decay in roughly the same time frame.