Comment by inglor_cz
8 hours ago
Have you done the math? "Many orders of magnitude" means, IMHO, at least three. A regular Falcon 9 carries 60 Starlinks IIRC, so three orders of magnitude means destroying 60 thousand at once.
What is the offensive launch that can destroy 60 000 satellites in one mission? I don't think it exists.
No idea about 60,000, but it's not impossible to make whole orbits unusable by launching piles of small junk.
Its will ruin it for everyone, but Russia or China is certainly able to do that.
The Starlink orbits are so low that stuff deorbits quite quickly withou active propulsion. So while this might work for a while, you woul need to replenish that junk for it to continue working, in all the many orbifs you would want to deny.
An EMP from a high altitude nuclear detonation would do the trick.
you do not need an orbital capable launcher to carry an anti-satellite weapons. Modified SAMs are sufficient.