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SpaceX conducts its 10,000th launch starlink After successfully launching another batch of 56 satellites into orbit on Sunday.
Milestone means SpaceX boss Elon Musk It now controls two-thirds of all active satellites, according to data from nonprofit satellite tracker Celestrac.
As of October 20, 8,562 of the 12,955 active satellites in low-Earth orbit – just over 66 percent – are part of spacexStarlink constellation of. Another 1,500 Starlink satellites are either defunct or no longer in orbit.
SpaceX’s dominance has raised concerns about the amount of power wielded by the world’s richest man through his control of the Starlink network. In 2023, Mr Musk claimed he had “more real-time global economic data than any single person” through his control of Tesla, SpaceX and X.
SpaceX’s closest rival when it comes to constellation size is currently OneWeb, which has 651 satellites in operation, although several Chinese efforts aim to have more than 10,000 satellites orbiting Earth by the 2030s.
Mr Musk’s company hopes to build 42,000 satellites in the Starlink constellation, although it currently has permission to launch only 12,000 satellites.
The latest Starlink launch has equaled SpaceX’s previous annual Falcon 9 launch record of 132, with dozens of launches still planned before the end of 2025.
Starlink satellites, which bring high-speed internet back to Earth, are built to last for about five years, after which they fire controlled thrusters to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up completely.
Videos of Starlink debris burning in the night sky have emerged on social media in recent weeks, with astronomer Jonathan McDowell recording the video. One to two SpaceX satellites are leaving orbit each day In 2025.
Dr. McDowell, who works at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the US, said this figure will increase to about five per day as SpaceX’s constellation continues to grow.
However Dr. McDowell warns that pollutants produced by burning could potentially harm the atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
“It’s not really clear yet, even in the age of mega-constellations, [whether] These effects are really going to be large enough to be problematic,” he told EarthSky, “but it’s not clear that they won’t do so.”