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  • Dolores [love/loves]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    what were they launching, pray tell? more eyesores in the night sky?

    how does anyone, governments especially, justify letting private companies colonize our view of the heavens? for products no-one fucking uses! 1 million people total are on starlink (doubtless running at a loss too lmao)

    • Awoo [she/her]
      ·
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      If China were the one launching these eyesores we would hear about it non-stop. It would be so fucking easy to make people mad about it if the media wanted to.

      • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
        ·
        edit-2
        2 years ago

        But the Chinese space agency isn't heavily invested in marginal financial returns on every new satellite with a six month shelf life they put into orbit.

        If they were launching these things, they wouldn't be China. They'd be, at best, post-glasnost Russia. But since they aren't trying to leverage the profitability of the last vestiges of their socialist economy for another quarterly positive return, the Beijing central planners see no material benefit to triggering Kessler Syndrome just so some fly-by-night telecomm company can promise global coverage contingent on the Federal Reserve keeping the money faucets running.