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The industrial occupation of space
While humanity has looked to the sky for millennia seeking answers, SpaceX has filed a request that could transform that experience forever. On January 30, 2026, Elon Musk’s company asked the US Federal Communications Commission for authorization to launch a megaconstellation of up to ONE MILLION satellites . The goal? To power data centers in space, operating between 500 and 2,000 kilometers in altitude, in orbits designed to ensure near-constant exposure to sunlight .
The number is as astronomical as the celestial bodies it threatens to overshadow: today, there are about 14,000 active satellites in orbit . Meanwhile, approximately 1.23 million additional projects are in various stages of development worldwide . What’s at stake isn’t just visual pollution—it’s the very possibility of accessing the night sky as humanity has known it for hundreds of generations.
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One in every 15 light points will be a satellite
In 2021, astronomers already projected that within less than a decade, one in every 15 visible light points in the night sky could be a moving satellite . At the time, the estimate considered only 65,000 proposed satellites . With the new scale of millions, the math explodes.
Low-orbit satellites reflect sunlight for about two hours after sunset and before dawn, appearing as moving bright dots . Many are the size of trucks . And even with attempts to reduce brightness, the occupation tends to become permanent: with an average lifespan of only five years, constant replacement transforms low orbit into a continuous industrial park .
Scientists describe the phenomenon as the “shifting baseline syndrome” in space—each generation accepts as normal an increasingly degraded sky . For the first time in history, children may grow up without ever contemplating the same starry sky that inspired poets, guided navigators, and grounded indigenous cosmologies .
Kessler Syndrome and the risk of orbital collapse
It’s not just the landscape that’s threatened. The exponential increase in orbital objects raises the risk of the so-called Kessler Syndrome—a cascade of collisions between space debris that could render certain orbits unusable for centuries .
There are already about 50,000 fragments larger than ten centimeters orbiting Earth . Recent estimates indicate the possibility of a major collision every 3.8 days, unless avoidance maneuvers are performed with surgical precision .
Unlike aviation, there is no unified global space traffic control system . The result is an orbital Wild West, where private companies compete without effective international coordination.
The invisible environmental impact
Large-scale launches consume colossal amounts of fossil fuels and affect the ozone layer . At the end of their lifespan, satellites are burned in the atmosphere, releasing metals into the stratosphere and causing potentially harmful chemical reactions .
Meanwhile, indigenous communities that depend on the night sky for navigation, hunting, knowledge transmission, and spiritual practices see their intangible heritage threatened by decisions made in corporate offices thousands of miles away .
The regulatory void
In the legal sphere, international space law establishes that countries—not companies—are responsible for damages caused by objects launched into space . With the multiplication of private actors, specialized lawyers question whether the current framework can hold corporations accountable in cases of permanent environmental damage .
Existing regulations focus on technical aspects: radio frequency use, launch safety, and mitigation of direct impacts on Earth . Left out are the cumulative effects on the night sky, culture, and science .
The proposal that could change the game
Faced with this vacuum, space lawyers Gregory Radisic and Natalie Gillespie proposed a Dark Sky Impact Assessment . The model would work in five stages: gathering evidence from all stakeholders (astronomers, atmospheric scientists, affected communities, industry); modeling cumulative effects; establishing criteria for situations where an unobstructed sky is essential; mitigation measures (such as brightness reduction and orbital adjustments); and transparency in licensing decisions .
Proponents insist it’s not about vetoing technology, but about qualifying decisions and balancing benefits with environmental and cultural protection .
What’s at stake
The SpaceX request is not an isolated case. It’s the spearhead of a process of space commodification that challenges the collective right to the night sky . While private companies dispute low orbit as if it were a new continent to be colonized, humanity risks losing something that has always been there, free and accessible to all: the ability to look up and marvel.
As astronomers warn, the problem isn’t one more or one less satellite. It’s the transformation of the sky into an industrial byproduct, where stars become background noise for a billionaire enterprise.
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