The first sixty Starlink satellites are deployed
A single Falcon 9 released sixty flat-packed satellites into low Earth orbit, beginning the deployment of the largest constellation ever built. The launch also began an argument that has not ended: astronomers reported immediately that the satellites were far brighter than expected and were contaminating wide-field observations, and the visibility of the deployment train made the scale of the plan legible to the public in a way that a filing never had.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Low Earth orbit broadband constellations · network · not located
- Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) · company · not located
- Orbital debris · phenomenon · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent. This is the standing of the weakest source, not an average.
ITU Radio Regulations
Establishes the treaty framework under which national administrations file satellite networks, priority follows filing date in non-planned bands, filings lapse unless brought into use, and non-geostationary constellations must meet staged deployment milestones. V55 verification basis: the Radio Regulations were not retrieved in this session; the mechanism is described and the specific milestone percentages and deadlines are named as a gap.
International Telecommunication Union · Partly verified
ITU Radio Regulations, Articles 9 and 11 on coordination and notification, and the World Radiocommunication Conference resolution establishing deployment milestones for non-geostationary systems
ESA Annual Space Environment Report
Supports the catalogued and modelled debris population magnitudes, the altitude dependence of orbital decay, and the fragment contributions of the 2007 Fengyun-1C test, the 2009 Iridium–Cosmos collision and the 2021 Cosmos 1408 test. V55 verification basis: esa.int was refused by the network egress proxy in this session and no search was available, so counts are given as ranges and no edition-specific number is quoted.
European Space Agency, Space Debris Office · Partly verified
ESA Space Debris Office, ESA Annual Space Environment Report, Darmstadt, annual series
Recorded on Low Earth orbit broadband constellations
- Kessler and Cour-Palais publish the collision cascade argument
- The UN adopts voluntary space debris mitigation guidelines
- A Chinese anti-satellite test destroys the Fengyun-1C weather satellite
- Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 collide
- A Falcon 9 first stage lands after an orbital launch
- The first sixty Starlink satellites are deployed
- OneWeb files for bankruptcy protection
- A Russian anti-satellite test destroys Cosmos 1408
- The FCC adopts a five-year post-mission disposal rule
- OneWeb completes its first-generation constellation
- NASA contracts for a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station
- Amazon begins deploying production broadband satellites
- A constellation deployment milestone falls due
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- A constellation deployment milestone falls due · 2026-07-30
- Amazon begins deploying production broadband satellites · 2025-04-28
- NASA contracts for a vehicle to deorbit the International Space Station · 2024-06
- OneWeb completes its first-generation constellation · 2023-03-26
- The FCC adopts a five-year post-mission disposal rule · 2022-09-29
- A Russian anti-satellite test destroys Cosmos 1408 · 2021-11-15
- OneWeb files for bankruptcy protection · 2020-03
- A Falcon 9 first stage lands after an orbital launch · 2015-12-21