Several major American satellite companies release a joint guide on “orbital safety”
Working with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the American satellite companies building large orbital constellations — SpaceX, Amazon, Iridium, and Eutelsat — have now released a joint reference guide for building and operating their satellites, dubbed “Satellite Orbital Safety Best Practices 3.0.”
- Emphasizes the design phase for improved orbital safety
- Stresses pre-launch coordination and collision avoidance analysis, especially near crewed vehicles, mitigating hazards during post-launch identification and cataloging of new orbital objects
- Provides guidance on data sharing across design and operations emphasizing the critical importance of sharing and screening high quality ephemeris with covariance from deployment through disposal
- Includes an Appendix with data exchange recommendations to mitigate conjunctions
The companies have apparently decided they needed to get together to make sure they were not stepping on each other’s toes. I would expect other companies to soon join this cooperative effort, as it is in no one’s interest to have satellites colliding in orbit.
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There is a disposal section, but no mention of whether satellite companies should address damage that their vaporizing satellites might do to the atmosphere upon reentry.
It has yet to be established that there is any consequential such damage. Should that turn out to be an issue, it can be addressed by gathering end-of-life satellites from their orbits and returning them, intact, to the ground for disposal. This sort of capability – or atleast the gathering part – is going to need to be developed to deal with the considerable extant population of large orbiting debris objects anyway.
“… It has yet to be established that there is any consequential such damage. …”
The concern raised by the Anton video is that there are many thousands of Starlink satellites which are now in the pipeline to deorbit and burn. If it turns out they are causing ozone damage the deorbiting will continue for years to come.
From a grok summary of the video:
As of May 2026 in the video, 1 to 5 Starlink satellites are burning up in the atmosphere every day on average.
The large and growing number of deorbited satellites turns this into what he calls a “giant uncontrolled chemical experiment” on the atmosphere. The effects have a delay (particles take 20–30 years to reach ozone layer altitudes), so current reentries won’t show full impact until the 2040s or later — by which time millions of satellites could already be in the pipeline.
I asked Grok: “ How much material from the solar system hits earth each day?”
Grok’s reply;
“
Around 40–100 tons (roughly 36–90 metric tons) per day is a commonly cited range for the total mass of meteoritic material (mostly dust and small particles) entering Earth’s atmosphere from the solar system, with NASA estimating about 48.5 tons (44 metric tons or 44,000 kg) daily. science.nasa.gov
This material consists primarily of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs or micrometeoroids) from comets and asteroids, along with occasional larger meteoroids. Most of it is very small (dust-grain size or smaller) and burns up or vaporizes high in the atmosphere, creating meteors (“shooting stars”). Only a tiny fraction survives to reach the surface as micrometeorites or meteorites. science.nasa.gov
Key Estimates and Context
• NASA’s figure (48.5 tons/day): This refers to the total meteoritic material entering the atmosphere. Almost all of it is vaporized, contributing to a constant “space drizzle.” science.nasa.gov
• Popular range (5–300 tons/day): Older and varying estimates exist, often around 100 tons/day in outreach materials. Satellite data has suggested 100–300 tons, while ground/radar observations can indicate lower values (down to ~5 tons). universetoday.com
• Material reaching the ground: A detailed Antarctic micrometeorite study estimated ~5,200 metric tons per year (about 14 tons per day) of extraterrestrial dust actually accumulating on Earth’s surface. Larger meteorites (recoverable rocks) add far less—perhaps a few tons or less annually, with only ~10–50 meteorites of noticeable size falling daily across the whole planet (most in oceans or remote areas). scientificamerican.com
This appears relevant to the discussion:
“As Philip II of Macedon was conquering Greek city-states left and right, Sparta was left alone. Philip had achieved a crushing victory, and Sparta was relatively weak and without walls. Philip sent a message to the Spartans saying “If I invade Lakonia you will be destroyed, never to rise again.” The Spartans replied with one word, “If.””
Stan,
listen to what Anton has to say. ( snipping from Grok: )
Satellite-derived material is chemically very different—heavily enriched in aluminum oxides and other metals that natural micrometeoroids largely lack.
Anton emphasizes that this “dramatically enriches the upper atmosphere with metallic content as opposed to rocky content.”
Aluminum oxide nanoparticles act as catalysts for chlorine activation, which can accelerate ozone depletion in the stratosphere (similar to how CFCs worked).
well, maybe the vaporized aluminum oxides and other metals are too small in quantity to actually damage the atmosphere. Grok says the quantity of CFCs released into the atmosphere prior to the Montreal Protocol was 1 million metric tons per year. Compared to 360 metric tons of aluminum oxide dust per year by 2040 ( Grok says 100 tons a year now )
Here is a final Grok quote and I will then be quiet:
While 360 tons/year of aluminum oxide is a notable addition (projected to be hundreds of percent above natural aluminum inputs), it is orders of magnitude smaller in mass than the CFC releases that caused measurable global ozone depletion.
Steve Richter,
“Rocky content” includes a lot of iron oxides as well as a lot of sulfides and other compounds that are, in general, more chemically active than aluminum oxide. Given the quite variegated chemical nature of naturally-occurring mass that intersects Earth’s atmosphere continually, it is hardly obvious that burnt satellites constitute any conspicuously severe risk over and above that which is natural.
Starlink satellites have already made significant improvements to the quality of life for millions. The use cases for all of the other large satellite constellations currently in early stages of deployment or design will multiply such improvements many-fold. I see no basis whatever for placing any current restrictions on satellite deployments based on something that could very well not happen or happen only to a very modest extent. As I’ve noted to you in previous comments on this topic, there are active measures that could be taken to pre-emptively eliminate the problem should that ever prove necessary.
The CFC thing is probably not a good one to bring up as it is looking more and more, as time goes by, that that whole episode was more due to hysteria in the absence of a decent backlog of baseline data than to any consequential effects of CFCs. We knew there was an ozone layer. Suddenly, it was discovered that there was an “ozone hole” over Antarctica. With the benefit of a few additional decades of data gathering, that has since been determined to be a cyclic natural phenomenon. Even if CFCs are a contributing factor to some degree, there now seems little basis for a blanket ban on their use – particularly in limited, but critical, use cases such as fire suppression with Halon, especially on aircraft where no real alternative has been developed. But “CFCs kill ozone” is now part of the “conventional wisdom” making even a special-cases comeback for these compounds a political non-starter.
Environmentalist wowsers already have a great deal to answer for. I do not propose giving any more of them additional unreasonable power to make their favored hobbyhorses part of state policy.
I suspect this updated document says, in essence, “do what SpaceX does.” SpaceX has already codified its automated anti-collision practices under the heading of Stargaze and made them available to others. Now all the others have to do is slot themselves into the framework SpaceX has already created. This was pretty much what I have been saying should happen for some time now. Good to see it happening. The main question marks are what Russia and the PRC elect to do – or not do – along these lines.
My understanding is that the Earth is bombarded by 44 tonnes of shooting stars (meteors, comets, etc.) each day, so a few pounds of artificial satellite is small potatoes in comparison.
Or maybe there ought to be a law forbidding the shooting stars, asteroids, meteors, comets, etc. from burning up in our atmosphere.
I looked at the ‘”satellite-rentry-is–going-to-kill-the-planet!” angle some months ago. The US military and NASA have been looking at re-entry pollution since at least the 1980’s, along with rocket exhaust products.
I am of the opinion that this scare is the new Progressive ‘climate change’. The Climate Scare has fizzled spectacularly, and the Progs need another stick. Rich people raining down pollution fills the bill. China, of course, isn’t in the conversation.
Well said. China itself is likely paying for this scare mongering to slow us down while they catch up.
They are smart and ruthless that way….if someone over there piped up with this kind of talk…he wouldn’t live to see another sunrise.
I respect it.
If Elon is Tony Stark….China is A.I.M. under Doctor Doom’s command.
He killed the Mandarin over the New Age ring nonsense.
America didn’t have to stomach to do what should have been done after 9/11 when no one minded troops on the ground.
China has no such softness….I will give them that.