John Abbe (aka Slow)@Instrument_Data @sundogplanets @Nichelle Yes, they are built to deorbit on a relatively few years. And break up in the atmosphere, releasing a lot of particulate materials. In the quantities we're now talking about this is likely to affect the ozone layer, among other things.
It's being studied now, but it would be smart for SpaceX to start making plans now for how satellites can be deorbitted less destructively, maybe even reused!
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the