this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
80 points (96.5% liked)
Science
18692 readers
4 users here now
Subscribe to see new publications and popular science coverage of current research on your homepage
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Wouldn't an event like this potentially cause mass disruption of GPS/GLONASS satellites?
I'm surprised no one has considered this as a potential terrorist threat vector. How difficult would it be to send a balloon/large amateur rocket up to start the domino effect?
It's pretty hard without state-level resources. A balloon can go abou 60km up. LEO begins like 400km IIRC.
LEO begins at around 160km. The ISS is between 400 and 420km at any given moment
Thank you, I stand corrected.
GPS Satellites are MUCH further away then LEO. GPS orbits around 20,000km, LEO is 400km. There is no way a non-nation state can get there, let alone the difficulty of actually intercepting those satellites. It's physical possible, of course, but not easy.
Don’t know, but it’d be fun to try
Iirc, gps satellites are in geosynchronous orbit, so it's impossible to reach with amateur rockets or balloons. But they could absolutely fuck up the leo satellites