China Joins SpaceX in Ruining Astronomy for Everybody

Shine Bright

In its effort to compete with SpaceX, China has launched the first internet satellites in its own, competing constellation — and astronomers are rightfully peeved.

As New Scientist reports, astronomers are concerned about the 18 satellites recently launched as the first of the country’s Qianfan (“Thousand Sails”) constellation.

That’s because they’re really, really bright, which could seriously mess with observations of the night sky.

“The Qianfan satellites in this first batch are bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye,” Anthony Mallama, a satellite brightness expert at the International Astronomical Union (IAU) who coauthored a new paper about the issue that’s currently awaiting peer review, told New Scientist. “They will adversely impact research astronomy and the aesthetic appreciation of the night sky at their current brightness.”

As the IAU paper explains, the Qianfan satellites launched in August of this year are not only brighter than SpaceX’s Starlink satellites, they’re brighter than all but 500 stars in the night sky. That’s a massive problem for Earth-bound astronomers because they can create bright streaks on telescopic images.

Listening to Experts

Despite being among the many astronomers who’ve long criticized Starlink for blocking the dark night sky, Mallama lauded SpaceX for reducing the brightness of its satellite fleet after astronomers called the Elon Musk-owned company out.

China could, if it wanted, do the same with Qianfan — but because there’s no international body regulating satellites, it’s technically not required to do anything about it.

“It’s difficult to know whether they are listening to the concerns of astronomers,” Mallama told New Scientist.

While there certainly is a chance China will ignore the cries of dark night sky advocates, another expert said the country may acquiesce if only to be a good sport.

“Chinese operators want to be viewed as responsible space actors, and they certainly see SpaceX as the leader to emulate,” explained Ian Christensen, an executive at the Secure World Foundation space advocacy group. “So the fact that SpaceX and other operators have engaged in this mitigation work may lead to Chinese operators also viewing it as important.”

With only eight of the planned thousands of internet satellites currently launched, China’s space-based telecom dreams are just starting to take shape — and hopefully, its leaders will heed the astronomy community’s concerns.