Satellites: Adverse Effects on Astronomy

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Viscount Stansgate]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to protect the work of astronomy from the adverse effects of large numbers of satellites.

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper. The updated register of interests will show that I am a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Dark Skies.

[The Minister of State, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Lord Vallance of Balham) (Lab)]

The Government recognise the importance of mitigating the adverse effects of satellites on astronomy. At this year’s United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, the UK played a key role in securing an agenda item on dark and quiet skies, focused on protecting optical and radio astronomy. The Government work with astronomers and industry to develop mitigation strategies, and remain committed to international collaboration on this issue.

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that Answer. This is a complex area because the sky is being filled with thousands of satellites —around 28,000 are currently going around the earth—and they interfere with astronomy in both the radio and the optical wavelengths. Mr Elon Musk personally controls two-thirds of all the active satellites going around the earth, having launched his 7,000th satellite this autumn, and he has plans for 34,000 more. Against this backdrop, can my noble friend the Minister be confident that major international astronomical facilities—such as the Square Kilometre Array, which is based in South Africa and Australia and is headquartered at Jodrell Bank here in the UK—can undertake their work without serious interference from large satellite constellations? If not, what can the Government try to do to mitigate this interference by working with satellite operators, astronomers and international partners?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for the question. There is a 10% increase, year on year, in light pollution from land, and there is a substantial increase in the problem of radio and light interference from satellites, as my noble friend says. The number of satellites circulating was about 2,000 in 2019, but it is now well over 10,000 and projected to go very much higher. Because of that, we have pushed to get this very item discussed next year by the scientific and technical committee, which is a sub-committee of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, to try to make sure that there is an international approach to reducing the problem, including mitigation strategies for satellites that will be put up.