Chatted once on a Webex with Chris Hadfield about 6-12 months ago, who said that the service was somewhat better and more reliable than his current satellite connection, but also that it wasn't necessarily good enough for a change in mindset. He knew that sometimes he wouldn't have good enough connection for video calls out there, and that was ok by him.
I don't think he was thinking about the space dust / negative externalities
I find no Google results that are appropriate for "Starlink satellite retrieval"
The Starlink website notes "95% of "all components of this design will quickly burn in Earth's atmosphere at the end of each satellite's lifecycle".
And of course, it's not black and white. Took me a bit longer... had to remember that Corporate Social Responsibility departments exist, but in February 2022 SpaceX put out a statement at least: https://www.spacex.com/updates/
Funny - so they've done a reasonable amount of work to minimize space junk, which is great! Absolutely no mention of helping out astronomers with the line of sight problem.
> who said that the service was somewhat better and more reliable than his current satellite connection, but also that it wasn't necessarily good enough
A beta product isn't perfect, more news at 11.
SpaceX has extensively worked with astronomers, including having a working group that meets weekly, presenting at conferences, doing multiple iterations of design changes and so on.
Chatted once on a Webex with Chris Hadfield about 6-12 months ago, who said that the service was somewhat better and more reliable than his current satellite connection, but also that it wasn't necessarily good enough for a change in mindset. He knew that sometimes he wouldn't have good enough connection for video calls out there, and that was ok by him.
I don't think he was thinking about the space dust / negative externalities
I find no Google results that are appropriate for "Starlink satellite retrieval"
The Starlink website notes "95% of "all components of this design will quickly burn in Earth's atmosphere at the end of each satellite's lifecycle".
It's amazing that it's already looking like this: https://satellitemap.space/
And of course, it's not black and white. Took me a bit longer... had to remember that Corporate Social Responsibility departments exist, but in February 2022 SpaceX put out a statement at least: https://www.spacex.com/updates/
Funny - so they've done a reasonable amount of work to minimize space junk, which is great! Absolutely no mention of helping out astronomers with the line of sight problem.