Technology
Bad news for sky watchers: Earth’s orbit has been littered by five more gigantic satellites which are poised to become the brightest objects in the night sky.
The five communication satellites, called BlueBirds, launched on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday at 4:52 a.m. ET. Each satellite is equipped with the largest ever commercial communications array to be deployed in low Earth orbit, according to AST SpaceMobile. The company’s prototype satellite unfurled its giant array in late 2022, outshining most objects in the skies except for the Moon, Venus, Jupiter, and seven of the brightest stars. Now, there’s five more of them, as the company builds out its satellite constellation.
AST SpaceMobile is seeking to create the first space-based cellular broadband network directly accessible by cell phones. In September 2023, the Texas-based company made the first ever 5G phone call between its prototype satellite and a Samsung Galaxy S22. “We believe space-based broadband cellular connectivity will revolutionize how people connect, empowering communities and driving economic growth on a global scale,” Abel Avellan, chairman and CEO of AST SpaceMobile, said in a statement.
Thursday’s launch saw the first commercial satellites in orbit, and AST SpaceMobile wants to build a constellation of more than 100 satellites. On its own, one satellite is bright enough to mess with observations of the cosmos.
The prototype satellite, BlueWalker 3, launched in September 2022 and unfurled its array around two months later. The company was quite proud of its size, “Made in TX—size matters!” Avellan boasted on Twitter, when referring to BlueWalker 3. Astronomers, however, were not amused.
BlueWalker 3 appeared as bright as two of the ten brightest stars in the night sky, Procyon and Achernar, through the lenses of different telescopes, according to a Nature study published in October 2023. Before unfurling its array, the satellite had a brightness magnitude of around +3.5, making it visible to the naked eye. However, after deploying its antenna array, its brightness increased by about two magnitudes.
The newly launched satellites are just as large as the prototype, but future models could be even larger. “We’re just getting started,” Avellan said during a livestream, Space.com reported. “Our next generation of satellites will be three and a half times larger.” There are currently no official rules to regulate the brightness of satellites in orbit.
AST SpaceMobile isn’t the only company trying to build cellular towers in space. SpaceX has launched more than 7,000 satellites to date, and new batches of its Starlink satellites keep making their way to low Earth orbit. Amazon, OneWeb, and Lynk Global are other companies trying to get in on the action. The exceptionally large satellites that recently settled in Earth’s orbit mark a turning point for astronomers looking towards the night skies, and seeing artificial light shinning back at them.
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