I just had to dig this up for something I'm writing, so here's the UN's space debris database (which has mostly turned from "space debris on the ground" to "garbage SpaceX dropped on other countries"): https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/treatyimplementation/arra-art-v/unlfd.html
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I'll note that the Starlink reentry debris that SpaceX dropped on Canada in August 2024 (separate from the Crew Dragon Trunk debris dropped on Canada in Feb 2024), still doesn't appear on this database. And I think that's because the farmer contacted SpaceX directly, SpaceX had him Fedex the debris to them. As far as I can tell, the Canadian gov't didn't find out until *I told them*, months after it left Canada, so I guess that means it doesn't get to go on this chart?
Really wild stuff...
Is there a global debris database?
@tuparev this is the closest that I know of: https://aerospace.org/reentries
This seams to be no topic in Germany at all.
I'll try:
Es scheint so zu sein, dass #SpaceX pro Monat! ein bis zwei seiner Sateliten abstürzen lässt. #Satellitenschrott hat sogar #Kanada getroffen. Dies ist eine tödliche #Gefahr.
#Kanada scheint das nicht einmal bemerkt zu haben da der getroffene Farmer den #Müll direkt zu SpaxeX gesendet hat.
@Skeptiker Starlink burns up 1 or 2 satellites PER DAY right now, and that is only going to increase, thanks to the short operational lifetimes of these throwaway satellites
@sundogplanets oh , sorry I just couldn't imagine the high amount.
Also Korrektur:
Jeden Tag fällt ein bis zwei Starlink Satelliten vom Himmel. Wenn ich es richtig erinnere wird die Zahl bis auf 5 pro Tag steigen.
In D kein Thema
@Skeptiker If they actually have 42,000 Starlink satellites with 5 year lifetimes, it'll be 23 satellites per day (nearly one satellite per hour) that burns up. Satellites the size of large trucks.
Completely ludicrous.
How can a satellite be the size of a large truck? Lifting over 10 000 kg into the orbit would require a ludicrous amount of propellant. Or does it just have solar panels that extend to be 5 meters long to each direction?
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@sundogplanets Their shit crashes on my property, it's mine.
Nice and convenient for spacex.
That document where SpaceX admits to dropping potentially lethal debris on Canada is still publicly available on their website, which is also kind of wild: https://starlink.com/public-files/Starlink_Approach_to_Satellite_Demisability.pdf
They seem to think it's just a whoopsie and no big deal. But...it's actually a violation of Canadian airspace! And also, terrifying!
SpaceX is scary.
@sundogplanets In the case they would delete it, it is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20250906143632/https://starlink.com/public-files/Starlink_Approach_to_Satellite_Demisability.pdf
and here: https://archive.ph/XZvrh
#WaybackMachine #InternetArchive #Starlink #SpaceX #spaceDebris
@NatureMC Oh I definitely downloaded it immediately, assuming they'd take it down when they got in trouble. But it turns out that there's not anyone to hold them accountable. There really won't be any changes until someone (or maybe many people) die from getting hit by space debris, and even then I have my doubts...
Oh! I forgot to add one last important bit to this rant. In the same document (linked above), SpaceX says basically "oh yeah, no big deal that we dropped a Starlink on Canada. But just in case, we're going to start reentering Starlink satellites over the Pacific."
I have seen ZERO evidence that they are actually doing this, and nobody is asking them to prove it. An awful lot of Starlinks have been observed reentering over land (like this one in Sept: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatoon-space-debris-satelitte-reentry-1.7643516)
@sundogplanets What makes me really angry, aside from ruining night skies and polluting the atmosphere, is that it is inevitable that one is going to land on a person, and no one seems to care enough to help prevent it.
@sundogplanets
The probability of space debris surviving re-entry and landing on a ship in the Pacific might be similar to space debris landing directly on a little farmhouse in Saskatchewan. Just saying it doesn't make me feel any better.
@sundogplanets Goddamned Space Junk. And lots and lots of it.
I'm very curious what fraction of reported fireballs on the excellent American Meteor Society website are now actually reentries. They often put notes on specific events when they are known to be a reentry, but I don't think there's a quick way to sort that...
https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/browse_events
@sundogplanets Probably someone is already doing this, but it seems like it would be really useful to apply machine vision to the reentries seen by fixed or all-sky cameras to get an estimate of velocity. The LEO reentry velocities are extremely tightly bound compared to the asteroids, and it'd be really neat to find the occasional bit of interstellar dust.
@sundogplanets Scott Manley had a great video on telling the difference (as an observer), not that you would need it, but I found it useful!
Have we to wait that some space debris will hit Air Force One before somebody will make something?
@sundogplanets if debris falls in my yard from a Nazi shitgibbon, they aren't getting it back. That shit is disappearing at minimum.
@NosirrahSec So the Outer Space Treaty says that it has to go back to the country of origin. But it doesn't specify who you have to give it back to.
Maybe Boeing would like to buy SpaceX parts?
@sundogplanets @NosirrahSec Is SpaceX scrupulously living up to its responsibilities under the Outer Space Treaty?
Or are they protected but not bound #WilhoitsLaw ?
@rupert @NosirrahSec Well, under the OST, the US government is absolutely for any damage SpaceX causes on the ground (because private space launchers were not a thing when it was written). So yes, protected but not bound, really.
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