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this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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Technology
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Did they ever satisfactorily resolve that issue, or did the media just stop covering it as aggressively? Last I heard they were trying to add solar shields to the satellites to reduce their albedo.
They do also use an antireflective coating/paint on the satellites now, which had helped quite a lot.
There were articles a while back stating that the target albedo had been met with the newer satellites.
I don't recall the specific details, though.
I haven't been able to find any info past that update. I guess it isn't being covered at all anymore.
Media doesn't care when SpaceX/Starlink fixes issues. They only care when problems are discovered, and act like it's some malevolent act rather than an unforeseen issue. The albedo problem is fixed on all new launches for quite some time and the sats only have a 5 year service life before deorbit so the problem ones will be cleared out in short order. I expect this frequency issue to get ironed out in a similar fashion.
SpaceX and SL have a very good track record so far of working with scientists and authorities on minimizing impact of their sat constellations. Mind you, I don't think this pure altruism, they just want to keep the government from locking down on them and jacking up costs.