The push mirrors moves by the European Union, which signed a \u20ac10.6 billion contract for its IRIS\u00b2 constellation exactly a year ago<\/a>, while China\u2019s state-backed Guowang network already has over 100 satellites in orbit and plans to deploy 13,000 more in the coming years. The result is a filing frenzy<\/a> at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a Geneva-based UN agency that coordinates spectrum and orbital resources. Forecasts now point to as many as 1.7 million non-geostationary satellite launches in low Earth orbit by 2030.<\/p>\n For the commercial space industry, the future of megaconstellations looks bright. For thousands of professional astronomers \u2013 and the vastly larger community of amateur stargazers \u2013 it\u2019s obscuring efforts to uncover the universe\u2019s secrets.<\/p>\n Mega satellite constellations are becoming both a defence infrastructure and a lifeline for internet access. But they also reflect sunlight into telescope cameras and emit radio signals that leak into frequencies reserved for science. As their numbers grow, the sky is becoming brighter and noisier, threatening optical and radio observation \u2013 the two fundamental ways humans study the cosmos.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a> Race for solutions enters the UN<\/p>\n With SpaceX\u2019s Starlink holding a multi-billion-dollar near monopoly in low Earth orbit and no enforceable international treaty to protect dark and quiet skies, scientists and skywatchers are up against the clock. International policy moves far more slowly than satellite deployment, and by the time regulations catch up, experts warn, the sky may already be irreversibly altered. In the absence of binding limits, the astronomy community has been working with regulators and operators to develop technical mitigation measures, an approach whose effectiveness depends on coordination across borders.<\/p>\n That dependency has pushed the debate beyond observatories into UN policy forums, with two bodies taking the lead. The ITU, which has protected radio astronomy frequencies for the past 50 years, has been focusing its efforts on interference from non-geostationary satellite systems like Starlink. In parallel, the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa) in Vienna has taken on the challenge of tackling satellite brightness. Its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Copuos) agreed in 2024 to establish a dedicated agenda item on dark and quiet skies after years of pressure from the scientific community.<\/p>\n \u201cWe chose direct engagement with industry, regulatory work at the ITU, policy discussions at Copuos and national level engagement with regulators,\u201d says Federico Di Vruno, spectrum manager at the SKA Observatory<\/a> and vice-chair of a key ITU working party on radio astronomy. From the industry side, Enrique Allona of the European space company OneWeb sees this split favourably. \u201cThe ITU should be the platform for quiet skies\u2026For dark skies, Copuos and its working groups of experts of all backgrounds are where significant advancements can be made,\u201d the engineer says.<\/p>\n Both satellite constellations and astronomical research are lawful uses of outer space under the Outer Space Treaty that governs activities beyond Earth\u2019s atmosphere, yet the 1967 treaty was written at a time when satellite launches were still only in the hundreds and government-run, leaving key questions of interference and accountability unresolved. However, the treaty does require that states act with \u201cdue regard\u201d to the interests of others and avoid \u201charmful interference\u201d \u2013 principles that extend to private operators since states bear international responsibility for national space activities.<\/p>\n Whether existing institutions can move fast enough remains an open question. Copuos operates by consensus and moves cautiously. The ITU has binding authority, but only over radio frequencies. Neither has enforcement power when it comes to optical astronomy.<\/p>\n For Olivier Hainaut, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory based in Munich, multilateralism remains the only realistic option despite its limits. \u201cSpace is a global commons, and low Earth orbit affects all countries,\u201d he says. \u201cCreating a new organisation would take a long time, and we would lose precious time.\u201d<\/p>\n Two problems, two sciences<\/p>\n To further complicate matters, the impact of megaconstellations on astronomy is uneven. Radio and optical astronomy face fundamentally different challenges, with effects varying widely from one telescope to another.<\/p>\n In radio astronomy, the threat is more existential. Satellites emit not only intentional signals but also unintended electromagnetic noise from onboard electronics, which can leak into frequencies astronomers use to listen for faint signals from the early universe, emitted billions of years ago. \u201cThese effects are currently not addressed by any regulatory framework because the scale of this leakage is unprecedented,\u201d explains Di Vruno.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a> The issue is now being examined by ITU study groups working on potential solutions ahead of the 2027 World Radiocommunication Conference in Shanghai, such as tighter limits on out-of-band emissions, expanded safeguards for astronomy bands and formal recognition of radio quiet zones, areas granted special protection for radio astronomy under national law. \u201cBut satellites with mitigation for radio leakage have not been launched yet,\u201d Di Vruno warns. \u201cWe are working with operators who are testing their satellites\u2019 radio effects on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n In optical astronomy, vulnerability depends heavily on the telescope\u2019s design. Instruments that quickly scan vast areas of the sky are particularly exposed.<\/p>\n Meredith Rawls, a research scientist working on the recently deployed Vera C. Rubin Observatory <\/a>in Chile, says the telescope is especially vulnerable. \u201cAll the features that make it powerful \u2013 its sensitivity and wide field of view \u2013 also make it more likely to see satellites,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The next-generation sky mapping telescope can image the entire southern sky every few nights, detecting up to 10 million changes per night, like asteroids, supernovae and variable stars.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a> After six months of collecting data, satellite streaks can already be seen. Rawls\u2019s team is still assessing whether the trails can be removed without damaging the data.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not catastrophic,\u201d she says. \u201cRubin will still do incredible science. It\u2019s just an extra complication we didn\u2019t originally plan for.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2025 study in the online magazine Nature<\/a> suggests the problem may extend beyond ground-based telescopes, with one third of the images taken by the low-orbit Hubble Space Telescope<\/a> potentially contaminated if all constellation plans are completed.<\/p>\n Industry takes action<\/p>\n At the ITU\u2019s space sustainability forum<\/a> in Geneva last October, SpaceX\u2019s lead engineer, David Goldstein, admitted candidly that the company had not fully anticipated Starlink\u2019s impact on astronomy when deployments began in 2019. Since then, major operators say they have tested technical measures to reduce interference, but with mixed results and independent verification still limited.<\/p>\n Amazon\u2019s low Earth orbit programme, Leo, told Geneva Solutions by email that all its satellites use a \u201ccustom-made di-electric film and non-reflective coating to reduce brightness\u201d. Meanwhile, French satellite operator Eutelsat\u2019s OneWeb uses fully steerable solar arrays to minimise reflection of its satellites.<\/p>\n SpaceX, which did not respond to Geneva Solutions\u2019 inquiries, presented its solutions at a recent Unoosa event in Vienna. Musk\u2019s company has experimented with darker satellite coatings, deployable flap-like sunshades and mirror-like surfaces to block or reflect sunlight away from Earth.<\/p>\n \u201cThe difference is visible even to the naked eye,\u201d says Hainaut, praising the operators\u2019 efforts. \u201cSatellites are much fainter overhead, becoming brighter mainly near the horizon toward the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n For radio astronomy, operational measures such as steering satellite transmissions away from radio telescope beams offer more promise. Already used in the United States around facilities like the Very Large Array, a major observatory in the southwest of the country, this model could scale globally if backed by regulation.<\/p>\n Astronomers acknowledge greater industry efforts but caution that mitigation remains voluntary, uneven across operators and largely excludes military satellites. \u201cI would say it\u2019s now a mix of genuine effort and marketing claims,\u201d Rawls says.<\/p>\n Hainut further points out that no single mitigation works on its own. \u201cWe need mitigation at every level \u2013 constellation design, satellite design, operations, observation planning and data processing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Crowded skies ahead<\/p>\n Even with these measures in place, the sheer volume of planned satellites raises deeper concerns about whether the sky can sustain current growth trajectories.<\/p>\n \u201cTen thousand satellites works, 50,000 probably works, 100,000 becomes problematic,\u201d Hainut says. \u201cOne million is essentially hopeless.\u201d<\/p>\n Orbital crowding and the risk of cascading collisions that render entire orbital zones unusable will be a \u201climiting factor before astronomy shuts down\u201d, he says. Di Vruno also points out that observations are becoming more expensive, requiring more telescope time and computational resources to clean contaminated data.<\/p>\n Beyond constellations already in orbit, astronomers are watching two emerging threats with particular alarm.<\/p>\n The first involves satellites designed to reflect sunlight to Earth at night, effectively creating artificial daylight for specific regions. These \u201csunlight-as-a-service\u201d concepts would require thousands of satellites and, Hainaut warns, \u201ccould wipe out several hours of night sky for astronomy\u201d. Not to mention, \u201cmajor ecological impacts beyond astronomy\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"645677970_highres.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/large.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Satellites")
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\n Satellites and other objects streak across the night sky above the M\u00e4rkisch-Oderland district in eastern Brandenburg, captured with a 20-second exposure on 2 May 2024. (Keystone\/Patrick Pleul\/DPA)<\/p>\n![\"SKAO-Low_SKA3065.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767765909_811_large.jpeg\"\/ "\\"Built")
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\n Built in the remote Murchison region of Western Australia, these antennas are part of SKA-Low, one of the world\u2019s most powerful radio telescopes, operated by the Square Kilometre Array Observatory. (SKAO\/Max Alexander)<\/p>\n![\"DSC00521-Enhanced-NR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767765909_749_large.jpeg\"\/ "\\"This")
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\n This image shows the Simonyi Survey Telescope taking on-sky observations with a 144-megapixel test camera called the Rubin Commissioning Camera on 24 October 2024. (RubinObs\/NSF\/DOE\/NOIRLab\/SLAC\/AURA\/H. Stockebrand)<\/p>\n
![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767765909_567_large.jpeg\"\/ "\\"A")
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