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Starts With A Bang podcast #127 – Satellites and space pollution

2026-03-07 17:25
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Starts With A Bang podcast #127 – Satellites and space pollution

When most of us were children, and we went to a rural area with clear skies overhead at night, we were all greeted by the same familiar sight: a dark night sky, glittering with many hundreds or even t...

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View our Twitter (X) feed View our Youtube channel View our Instagram feed View our Substack feed Search What are you curious about? Popular SearchesCritical thinkingPhilosophyEmotional IntelligenceFree Will Latest Videos Latest Articles Starts With A Bang podcast #127 – Satellites and space pollution

What goes up into low-Earth orbit will eventually come down, bringing huge consequences with it. Be informed, not surprised!

by Ethan Siegel March 7, 2026 Digital illustration of Earth showing a large amount of space debris and satellites orbiting the planet, highlighting the issue of space junk. The illustration shows all tracked objects in space as of 2025, as shown by the European Space Agency. The size of the objects, including intact satellites as well as space debris, is greatly exaggerated, but the number of objects shown is actually far less than the number of objects in space now in 2026, just one year later.

Credit: European Space Agency

Key Takeaways
  • The space age began in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik 1: humanity’s first artificial satellite. Now, in 2026, there are over 17,000 satellite payloads in orbit, with over a million more planned.
  • This enormous increase in the satellite population, raising not just the number but also the total mass of satellites, is a new form of pollution, and brings its own hazards along with it.
  • This hasn’t been a slow, steady march towards our current state, but rather it’s only become a severe problem since 2019: when we entered the era of satellite megaconstellations. Here’s what the experts say!

An astrophysics column on big questions and our universe.

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When most of us were children, and we went to a rural area with clear skies overhead at night, we were all greeted by the same familiar sight: a dark night sky, glittering with many hundreds or even thousands of stars. Depending on how dark your sky was, you could spot up to 6000 stars at once, as well as deep-sky objects, the plane of the Milky Way, and only the rare, occasional satellite streak. As time went on, more and more satellites were launched, bringing us up to around 2000 active satellites as of 2019.

And then we entered the era of satellite megaconstellations, beginning with the launch of the first Starlink satellites. Now, nearly 7 full years later, there are over 17,000 active and defunct satellite payloads in orbit, with approximately 100 times as many satellites proposed in the coming years. From satellite communications to direct-to-phone links to the proposition of AI data centers in space, the number of proposed use cases has exploded. However, as the environment around Earth becomes more crowded, the risks, the harms, and the potential for disaster all grow evermore severe, with woefully insufficient (or, sometimes, no) mitigation measures in place.

Is this a cause for despair? Or could this be our finest hour in terms of combatting these new forms of pollution. I’ve brought expert Dr. Meredith Rawls onto the podcast this episode to discuss satellites and space pollution, and the conversation ranges from thoughtful to passionate to pessimistic to hopeful many times over. Have a listen; you don’t want to be underinformed about this one!

And for more information, check out these helpful links:

  • IAU’s center for the protection of dark and quiet skies: cps.iau.org/
  • NRAO/VLA’s paper on radio telescope operations coordinating with satellite providers: arxiv.org/abs/2502.15068v1
  • Vera C. Rubin’s public alerts stream: rubinobservatory.org/news/first-alerts
  • An article on Rocket plumes: www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-03154-8
  • Meredith’s Nature News and Views piece regarding streaks in space telescopes: www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03725-x
  • The latest on the CRASH clock: outerspaceinstitute.ca/crashclock/
  • Astronomers argue for astronomy on the ground and in space: spacenews.com/the-future-of-astr…arth-and-in-space/
  • and Yvette Cendes’s previous appearance on the SWAB podcast: Ethan-siegel-172073460 – Starts-with-a-bang-77-stellar-destruction and open.spotify.com/episode/4xnBB0Ma4SzHk8ulziOidk
    Science and Tech
Ethan Siegel

Theoretical astrophysicist and science writer

Full Profile Ethan Siegel Starts with a Bang! Monthly Issue February 2026 Biology’s New Era In this monthly issue, we explore the bleeding edge of biotech, as well as the scientists, writers, and philosophers whose efforts helped get us here. 1 video 10 articles Abstract collage of human profiles, DNA sequences, cell patterns, molecular structures, and geometric shapes on an orange background.

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