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   Dr Megan Argo (astromeg@astrodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 01:28:55 JST Dr Megan Argo

   So #Boeing finally successfully launched their crewed launcher yesterday, and now #SpaceX have launched the next test flight of #Starship.

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     Dr Megan Argo (astromeg@astrodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 01:28:53 JST Dr Megan Argo

     in reply to

     The more we launch into space, the more we dump in the atmosphere. The faster the replacement cycle for our megaconstellations of satellites (powering our communications, internet, etc), the more of them we burn up when they get replaced.

     The atmosphere is not unlimited. It took us a long time to realise that was true for the oceans. We must remember that this goes for the air we breathe, too.

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     Dr Megan Argo (astromeg@astrodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 19-Sep-2024 01:28:54 JST Dr Megan Argo

     in reply to

     It's an exciting time for the future of space flight and space exploration, and the reusability of the SpaceX system will be revolutionary - once they complete the development phase, which they are making great progress towards.

     I can't help but worry about the amount of stuff we are dumping in the atmosphere though. Every launch involves a huge amount of fuel, and every reentry involves burning material (even if whatever is reentering does not burn up on reentry).

     Minoru Saba repeated this.