SpaceX satellites’ effect on night sky can’t be eliminated, astronomers say

Enlarge / Artist's impression of low-Earth orbit satellites like those launched by SpaceX and OneWeb. (credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld)

Broadband satellites being launched by SpaceX and other companies will inevitably have a negative impact on astronomers' ability to observe the night sky, according to a new report by astronomers. There are no mitigation strategies that can completely eliminate the satellites' impact on astronomical observations—other than not launching satellites at all—but the report includes recommendations for how satellite operators can minimize disruption and how observatories can adjust to the changes.

The report released this week is titled, "Impact of Satellite Constellations on Optical Astronomy and Recommendations Toward Mitigations." The report resulted from the recent Satellite Constellations 1 (SATCON1) workshop, which was organized jointly by the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). SpaceX engineers participated in the online workshop, but the report was written by members of the SATCON1 Scientific Organizing Committee and represents their consensus views. The committee members hail from NOIRLab, AAS, the Lowell and Steward observatories in Arizona, the Rubin Observatory in Chile, the University of Michigan, UC-Davis, Smith College, and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA).

The report said: