Collisions in the sky
2025-07-03
Over the past six decades, astronomy, space science, and the space industry have seemed to be in a kind of virtuous symbiosis. Astronomy has benefited from improvements in technology and has had the opportunity to place observing platforms in space. The space industry has been pushed by the extreme technological demands of curiosity-driven research, and benefited from the flow of public money to industrial contracts to build astronomical missions. Both science and industry have been driven by a shared romantic vision of exploring the Universe, whether by studying distant galaxies or by humanity stepping out into space. All of this was suddenly disrupted in 2019 by a rude awakening. Starlink communication satellites began to photo-bomb astronomers’ images as they streaked across the sky. Suddenly, it seemed, astronomy and commercial space activity were in conflict. This friction may be coming to a crunch as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory begins a 10-year survey of the cosmos.