The Bluewalker 3 satellite is brighter than 99.8% of visible stars
Sightings of a massive test satellite launched in September have fueled concerns about the impact a planned fleet could have on astronomy
Space
November 25, 2022
The 64 square meter reflective array of the Blue Walker 3 satellite after its deployment in orbit AST SpaceMobile
A test satellite for a future space-to-Earth mobile phone network is brighter than 99.8% of the stars visible to the naked eye. If a planned fleet of 100 more satellites is as bright or brighter, astronomers fear it could seriously affect ground-based astronomy.
In September, the Texas company AST SpaceMobile launched its BlueWalker 3 satellite to test the broadcast of a cellular connection directly to mobile phones from space.
But astronomers feared the test…
