When he’s not planning on colonising Mars or running Tesla, Elon Musk also has his hands full with Starlink.

This special division of SpaceX is all about launching thousands of satellites into orbit to create a space-based broadband internet signal for planet Earth.

Nasa, however, has some concerns.

Not least that Musk’s idea to fly another 30,000 satellites into space will create ‘substantial congestion,’ above the Earth.

‘With the increase in large constellation proposals to the FCC, Nasa has concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events and possible impacts to Nasa’s science and human spaceflight missions,’ the US space agency wrote in a letter to the American Federal Communications Commission this week.

Nasa continued: ‘Recognizing the importance of spaceflight safety and ensuring a sustainable space environment, Nasa has provided similar comments in response to other proposed large constellations.’

Understandably, the prospect of collisions in space isn’t good for anyone. Last summer, the ISS took a hit from a piece of space junk travelling at 17,500mph that punched a hole in it.

SpaceX currently has around 1,469 active Starlink satellites but the company received a licence to put 12,000 into orbit back in 2018.

Source: Read Full Article