Elon Musk details some SpaceX efforts to reduce nighttime visibility of Starlink satellites

Elon Musk details some SpaceX efforts to reduce nighttime visibility of Starlink satellites

4 years ago
Anonymous $9CO2RSACsf

https://techcrunch.com/2020/04/22/elon-musk-details-some-spacex-efforts-to-reduce-nighttime-visibility-of-starlink-satellites/

It’s launch day for yet another batch of Starlink satellites, which will bring the total launched by SpaceX to 422. With each launch, there’s renewed discussion around the impact the growing constellation of low Earth orbit small satellites has on night-sky visibility and scientific research, and SpaceX has said it’s making changes to attempt to address those concerns. Now, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has provided some more detail about some of the latest measures his company is taking to minimize Starlink’s impact on nighttime sky observation.

In response to a question about why the Starlink satellites have seemed to be even more visible and brighter in recent weeks, prompting many reports of them being spotted by more individuals, Musk said that this was due to the angle of the satellites’ solar panels during their orbital raise and parking maneuvers, and said that a fix is being deployed to address this “now.”