Controlled de-orbiting of #satellites at end of mission is a responsible practice and @SpaceX deserves credit for doing so.
But this entails depositing an unknown amount of material in the upper #atmosphere, with presently unknown #environmental effects. We don't know how much of which metals this involves, but "burning" things up in the atmosphere involves ablation and vaporization of materials. There are legitimate concerns that this may upset the thermal balance of the atmosphere, amounting to a giant uncontrolled #geoengineering experiment.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/mass-retirement-spacex-spotted-deorbiting-dozens-of-starlink-satellites
[#]Space #SpaceEnvironment #SpaceEnvironmentalism
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