Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by black_puppydog 2327 days ago
Newer satellites usually have a fuel budget to de-orbit or at least go into a parking orbit. That, plus there's work on de-orbiting passive objects from earth or from cleaning satellites. I'm with GP that this has huge potential, even if it's not in the hubble class.
2 comments
Rebelgecko 2327 days ago
Right now, it's not a big deal if 1% of satellites die before they can deorbit or go to a graveyard orbit. When there's thousands of satellites going up every year I think it starts to become a potential issue.
link
gamblor956 2327 days ago
The problem is the "usually" since that's generally only Western (i.e., US and EU) companies that pay for that sort of EOL.

Indian and Chinese companies don't bother to EOL their satellites by burning them up; they just leave them where they are.

link