Private satellite megaconstellations will transform night sky, raising environmental and equity concerns

In a few years, when you look up at the night sky and see bright points of light moving across the darkness, your first instinct might be to call them stars. You would be mistaken. What you are seeing will be satellites—thousands of them, owned and operated by a handful of private companies, most notably Amazon. The night sky, that ancient constant, is being colonized by commerce.

The numbers are staggering. Companies based in the United States and United Kingdom are planning to launch nearly 40,000 satellites within the next two years, racing to capture what they project will be a $3 trillion space-based economy. Amazon alone has permission to launch 3,274 satellites and has requested approval for an additional 4,500, ostensibly to provide broadband access to households, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies in regions where reliable internet remains out of reach. Astra Space Inc. is seeking approval for 13,620 satellites, framing the mission in language about creating a healthier, more connected planet through communications services and environmental monitoring.

But beneath the rhetoric of global connectivity lies a more complex reality. The three billion people who have never accessed the internet—nearly all of them living in rural areas across Africa, Asia, and Latin America—represent not a humanitarian opportunity but a market to be captured. When these populations finally gain internet access through satellite broadband, their rooftops will bristle with dish antennas, and the digital gateways on their devices will default to Amazon's homepage. The company acquired Facebook's satellite division, ensuring that data collection will be seamless and comprehensive. These new customers will not simply gain access to information; they will be funneled into ecosystems of e-commerce, streaming services, and same-day delivery designed to extract value from them.

The infrastructure required to support this global network carries enormous environmental costs that rarely enter the conversation. Thousands of earth stations and massive data centers will need to be built and powered continuously. Some electricity will come from solar installations, but the majority will rely on fossil fuels. Even solar power carries hidden environmental burdens—whether using silicon cells or gallium arsenide, a byproduct of aluminum ore processing, the manufacturing and deployment of these systems generates significant carbon emissions. Microsoft is already experimenting with underwater data centers to reduce cooling costs and burnish its green credentials; Amazon and others will inevitably follow. The irony is sharp: a system ostensibly designed to connect the world will require energy infrastructure that accelerates climate change.

There is also the question of who writes the rules. In November 2021, the commander of the U.S. Space Force wrote that the United States intended to collaborate with allied spacefaring nations like Britain and Germany to establish international norms for responsible behavior in space, a response to demonstrated anti-satellite capabilities by Russia and China. What this means in practice is that a small group of executives from Western technology companies will effectively craft the governance framework for space-based commerce. This mirrors the pattern established in the 1990s, when representatives of the software, pharmaceutical, and entertainment industries shaped intellectual property rules that were then enforced globally through the World Trade Organization. The same dynamic is repeating itself at a higher altitude.

The question of payment systems adds another layer. As millions of new customers from the global south enter e-commerce platforms, local currencies would complicate transactions and reduce the frictionless experience that maximizes spending. Cryptocurrency offers an elegant solution—Bitcoin and similar systems eliminate the need for currency conversion and local banking infrastructure. Never mind that cryptocurrency mining consumes vast amounts of electricity and generates enormous carbon emissions. The environmental cost is externalized, absorbed by the atmosphere and the communities least responsible for creating the problem.

What emerges from this convergence of satellite launches, data centers, energy consumption, and financial systems is not a vision of universal connection but of a new form of dependency. The night sky will indeed twinkle with thousands of artificial lights, and below them, billions of people will have internet access—but on terms set by corporations accountable to shareholders, not citizens. The infrastructure of connection will be owned and controlled from Silicon Valley and Seattle, generating wealth that flows upward while environmental costs flow outward, settling heaviest on those who contributed least to the system's creation.