Re:Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies
by bix6 on Thursday November 05, 2026 @01:58PM
(#50382941)
Sorry which regular rural people are parting with their cash to launch satellites?
Re:Image of Our Satellite-Choked Night Skies
by wat10000 on Thursday November 05, 2026 @02:04PM
(#50383004)
There's this service called Starlink which currently accounts for the majority of satellites in orbit. Starlink uses those satellites to provide internet access to subscribers on the ground. They have several million paying customers. Their service isn't particularly competitive in most urban areas where more traditional internet services are cheaper and faster, but there are lots of rural areas where they're by far the most competitive option, so that's where most of these subscribers are found.
This isn't some nefarious plot to manipulate the market or irradiate all the gold in Fort Knox or something. That scare-quoted "money" comes from providing useful services to people who want to pay for them. Yes, it turns out that millions of people wanting high-speed communication for their rural homes trumps people who get angry that they have to run their astrophotography through some software.