SpaceX Promises Redesign of Starlink Satellites
By Mark Harris | March 22, 2019
Starlink visualization. Photo: Mark Handley, University College London
SpaceX has promised to redesign its upcoming mega-constellation of internet satellites so that they cannot hurt anyone on Earth.
In a meeting with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week, SpaceX said that the vast majority of its Starlink satellites will no longer contain dense metallic components that could have survived re-entry and endangered people on the ground. “No components of… the satellite will survive atmospheric re-entry, reducing casualty risk to zero,” SpaceX wrote in a letter to the FCC after that meeting.