Starlink satellites are making thousands of avoidance maneuvers as low Earth orbit becomes more crowded, feeding worries that a catastrophic impact is inevitable. SpaceX’s orbital communication satellites performed maneuvers just over 25,000 times in the six-month period between December 1, 2022, and May 21, 2023, the company told the Federal Communications Commission in a recent […]
I see, I’d thought gravity was the larger force in orbital decay. But then, the atmosphere doesn’t exist without gravity, so I still say gravity :P
Hehe, fair point.
Although on another level, the atmosphere extends so far only because some high temperature molecules got flung out that far due to being the outliers in the temperature game, which mostly comes from solar radiation. So it’s also the Sun 🌞😎