SpaceX to make Starlink satellites dimmer to lessen impact on astronomy

SpaceX has a fix in play to make its bright Starlink satellites less disruptive to astronomy, according to a SpaceNews report. 

After the first Starlink internet satellites launched in May, astronomers noticed that the little satellites are quite reflective and bright. With SpaceX reporting it wants to put 42,000 of these satellites in the sky, astronomers were concerned about it washing out parts of the night sky.

So now the company plans to treat one of the Starlink satellites with a special coating, when the next group goes in late December, according to SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell. 

A train of SpaceX Starlink satellites are visible in the night sky in this still from a video captured by satellite tracker Marco Langbroek in Leiden, the Netherlands on May 24, 2019, just one day after SpaceX launched 60 of the Starlink internet communications satellites into orbit. (Image credit: copyright Marco Langbroek via SatTrackBlog)

Shotwell, in a conversation with SpaceNews and other reporters at SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, said that the company had not anticipated problems with reflective satellites.

"No one thought of this," Shotwell said, according to SpaceNews. "We didn't think of it. The astronomy community didn’t think of it." But once reports came to SpaceX of the bright satellites, she added, the company began looking into fixes for the satellites."

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