From Sputnik to Starlink: historical perspectives on astronomy and satellite communications

Abstract As the number and variety of communications satellites proliferate in the rapidly accelerating New Space Age, specialists and lay observers alike have weighed the implications of a crowded orbital environment for astronomical research. Although so-called “megaconstellations” may be a relatively new development, conflict over the anticipated effects of space technology on astronomy has a much longer history, going back to the very first experimental communications satellites. Astronomers have long acted as environmental watchdogs for outer space even as the power landscape in the international aerospace industry shifted during the half century since Sputnik. What lessons might current astronomers take from past conflicts over the integrity of the night sky to address contemporary and future risk?