Out of about 5,554 satellites orbiting the Earth, fewer than 300 belong to SpaceX. But there is concern about obscuring the night sky once all 12,000 planned Starlink satellites are in orbit.
The U.S. scientific community has warned that the popularity of the artificial satellite constellations poses real risks. Scientific American reported last October that the FCC in the prior two years had authorized 13,000 satellites.
The Tech Crunch website reports that SpaceX now has 300 Starlink satellites in orbit following a Feb. 17 launch.
That’s just a fraction of all 5,524 satellites currently in orbit. They come from 93 countries and organizations.
The U.S. and Russia have the most orbiting satellites -- 2,116 (including Starlink) and 1,524, respectively.
At www.polygraph.info
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