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VIRGIN Orbit’s chief executive says they believe they have found the cause of their rocket malfunction earlier this year. On January 9, the rocket was launched from a Boeing aircraft that took off from Cornwall in the United Kingdom(UK). On board were nine satellites.

This was the first time satellites were launched from the UK, which is otherwise a fairly big industry player when it comes to satellite technology. However, soon after the rocket deployed from the Boeing plane, it failed.

This week, Virgin Orbit executive Dan Hart told a symposium that they have probably pinned down the reason for the failure: A simple, relatively cheap filter.

“Everything points to, right now, a filter that was clearly there when we assembled the rocket, but was not there as the second stage engine started, meaning it was dislodged and caused mischief downstream,” he said. “This is like a hundred-Dollar part that took us out.” In other news, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has given Amazon permission to launch 3 236 satellites, ostensibly so that they can deliver internet services.

The FCC has imposed several conditions on Amazon. These include the ability to manoeuvre each satellite to avoid collisions, and a detailed plan about how to bring the satellites down when they reach the end of their lifespan.

As part of the ongoing competition between Amazon and SpaceX, SpaceX tried to limit the number of satellites Amazon is allowed to deploy to just a few hundred. SpaceX themselves already have around 3 800 satellites in orbit, with plans for a total of 42 000. So far they have permission for 12 000.

APPROXIMATE

In fact, SpaceX already owns about half of the approximate 8 000 active satellites that are in low Earth orbit. This total number of satellites has increased exponentially in the past three years, with the addition of at least another 3 000 of them. It’s all fairly disturbing. First, that the United States(US) believes they don’t have to consult with anyone else on the planet when it comes to occupying common space territory in a way that affects all of us. Second, when the polluting effect of these satellites is considered. And third, of course, the inevitable military and surveillance nature of such satellites, despite what they tell us about how it’s all ‘commercial internet’ or for ‘weather monitoring’. We’ve heard those ones before. While the surveillance alone is pretty terrifying, the polluting aspects are just as shocking. The rocket launches themselves are not great in terms of emissions. But that aside, what happens to these satellites when they eventually reach the end of their lifespan is a topic that should ring every alarm bell in any thinking person’s head.

Each and every one of SpaceX’s satellites consists of 250 kilogrammes of aluminium. When the orbits of these machines decay, they fall back to Earth, supposedly in a controlled way (this is now a key condition the FCC has imposed on Amazon).

These hunks of aluminium break up and disintegrate as they come down, and the resultant aluminium disperses across the atmosphere to fall down onto our fields and rivers and oceans, and end up contaminating our food supply. Aluminium is suspected of playing a role in diseases like Alzheimer’s, autism, nervous system disorders and breast cancer.

SpaceX’s fleet will see ten million kilograms of aluminium rain down on our planet.

The silence and ignorance on this issue is extremely disturbing, and we need to address this issue urgently.