Vera Rubin Observatory's $700M LSST survey will have at least 10% of its images contaminated by satellite constellation trails, with no compensation mechanism from constellation operators

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which began its 10-year Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) in 2025, will capture approximately 1,000 images of the sky every night. Simulations show that if the LEO satellite population reaches 40,000 (it is currently on track to exceed this), at least 10% of all LSST images -- and the majority of twilight observations -- will contain satellite trails. Second-generation Starlink (V2) satellites produce radio-frequency interference 32 times stronger than first-generation satellites. The contamination is projected to reduce the observatory's ability to detect stars by 7.5% and add approximately $22 million in additional survey costs. Why it matters: Contaminated images degrade the statistical power of survey astronomy, so rare transient events like near-Earth asteroid detections and kilonova observations are missed or misclassified, so our ability to detect potentially hazardous asteroids is reduced precisely as the asteroid impact risk remains constant, so planetary defense preparedness weakens, so humanity's capacity to respond to a civilization-threatening impact scenario is diminished by the very satellites meant to improve life on Earth. The structural root cause is that there is no regulatory framework that treats orbital brightness as a form of light pollution subject to environmental review -- the FCC licenses spectrum but not photon emissions, and the FAA licenses launches but not on-orbit brightness -- so satellite operators face zero regulatory cost for optical interference with ground-based astronomy, and the IAU's recommended brightness limit of magnitude 7 for satellites below 550km is entirely voluntary.