The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has warned that the rapid expansion of satellite megaconstellations, led by SpaceX’s Starlink, is creating a critical threat to space-based astronomy. Thousands of bright satellites reflect sunlight and emit radio signals, producing streaks and glows that overlap with faint celestial targets, corrupting scientific images that often require hours of exposure time to capture distant galaxies, asteroids, and cosmic phenomena.

A new study published in Nature Astronomy on 3 December 2025 delivers the first precise forecasts of the damage. Researchers predict that once planned fleets are fully deployed, NASA’s SPHEREx, Europe’s ARRAKIHS, and China’s Xuntian telescopes—all wide-field survey instruments—will have over 96% of their images contaminated by satellite trails. The iconic Hubble Space Telescope, with its narrower field of view and higher orbit, is expected to see around 40% of its images affected, a sharp rise from current levels.

The root cause is the explosive growth in satellite numbers: from fewer than 2,000 in 2019 to more than 15,000 today, with approved plans for up to 560,000 more by the 2030s. At that density, the low-Earth orbit environment will be saturated with moving light sources, fundamentally altering the darkness of the orbital sky that astronomers have relied on for decades.

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The study proposes practical mitigation strategies, including launching satellites at lower altitudes where they decay faster, applying darker coatings to reduce reflectivity, and precisely controlling satellite orientation to minimize sunlight reflection during telescope observations. Coordinated action between regulators, space agencies, and commercial operators is now urgent.

Without swift intervention, the authors conclude, vast portions of humanity’s future view of the universe from space will be irreversibly marred, jeopardizing major discoveries in cosmology, galaxy evolution, and planetary defense for generations to come.

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