[nordsieck]

> As long as other satellites keep being launched into higher but not geosync orbits doesn't that provide a steady supply of junk to navigate around?

Sort of.

1. Modern satellites don't really shed junk - and almost all satellites today have to be launched with a plan to make sure that they deorbit in a timely manner. Doesn't always work out, but most are pretty safe.

2. For space junk, the time to deorbit increases super-linearly with orbital height. Which means that you are correct - stuff in higher orbits will slowly "fall" through the Starlink orbits on their way to Earth. But it's a very slow process which means there's really only a thin trickle of stuff falling from above.

What that means is that, Starlink will always have to avoid objects. But the bulk of the problem, which was caused by this[1] Russian anti-satellite missile strike will go away after a decade or so.

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1. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-59299101

[pclmulqdq]

Many of those de-orbit plans are things like "deploy all the solar panels in the maximal-drag configuration and wait for the thing to burn." That still poses risk to satellites in very low orbits, although they linger for weeks or months rather than years. I wouldn't expect the situation to get a lot better, since despite the reduced time to de-orbit, a lot more satellites are being launched.