[copenocoiner]

> From the reflection of the sun off their metal components to the radio interference they emit; these satellite's are a menace to the scientific community.

May I suggest that the development of this technology, cheap satellites, for commercial purposes will reduce the costs for scientific purposes. More labs will eventually be able to launch observing satellites for themselves. Not a perfect outcome, better if we had our cake and got to eat it, but in this case we get cheap global internet and cheap(er) satellite launches for all purposes.

[rcxdude]

There's a world of difference between launching a comms satellite and launching a telescope. The most affected form of astronomy (radio astronomy), can't even be feasibly done from orbit, not even with the next few generations of launch vehicles.

(Also starlink is a solution for a relative few: it does not represent serious competition for traditional ISPs because there are still significant limits on the density of connections it can support. It's great if you're in the middle of nowhere and there's relatively few people around you. It sucks in cities. It's not going to supply internet to even a significant fraction of any country, bar some micronations)

[rhodozelia]

Astronomy will only be possible from satellites that are further away from earth than all the LEO satellites.

I’m not convinced the squeeze is worth the juice. Starlink wasn’t necessary, there are/were alternatives. Hopefully it forces the terrestrial providers to step their game up, we all get FTTH, and then starlink can all crash in to the atmosphere before collisions pollute all of earths orbits and render them all unusable for the few valuable services that can only be done from space.