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Scientists Warn of Emissions Risks from the Surge in #Satellites
With hundreds of satellites launched each year and tens of thousands more planned, scientists are increasingly concerned about an emerging problem: emissions from the fuels burned in launches and from the pollutants released when satellites and rocket stages flame out on reentry.
By Jon Gertner • December 2, 2025
Excerpt: "More recently, however, scientists have become alarmed by two other potential problems: the emissions from #RocketFuels, and the emissions from satellites and #RocketStages that mostly ablate (that is, burn up) on reentry. 'Both of these processes are producing #pollutants that are being injected into just about every layer of the atmosphere,' explains Eloise Marais, an atmospheric scientist at University College London, who compiles emissions data on launches and reentries.
"As Marais told me, it’s crucial to understand that #Starlink ’s satellites, as well as those of other commercial ventures, don’t stay up indefinitely. With a lifetime usefulness of about five years, they are regularly deorbited and replaced by others. The new satellite business thus has a cyclical quality: launch; deploy; deorbit; destroy. And then repeat.
"The cycle suggests we are using Earth’s mesosphere and stratosphere — the layers above the surface-hugging troposphere — as an incinerator dump for space machinery. Or as Jonathan MacDowell puts it: 'We are now in this regime where we are doing something new to the atmosphere that hasn’t been done before.' MacDowell and some of his colleagues seem to agree that we don’t yet understand how — or how much — the reentries and launches will alter the air. As a result, we’re unsure what the impacts may be to Earth’s weather, climate, and (ultimately) its inhabitants."
https://e360.yale.edu/features/satellite-emissions
#SpaceDebris #SpacePollution #SpaceJunk #SpaceX
