When considering privately funded satellites, Elon Musk comes to mind as the funder of the development of the Starlink network. This report, from NewScientist (28 June 2025, paywall), must be concerning to him:
The asteroid 2024 YR4, which was once thought to be on a collision course with Earth, may still pose a threat to the planet. There is still a chance the space rock could smash into the moon, and the resulting explosion could shower Earth with a cloud of satellite-destroying shrapnel. …
The chance of a collision with the moon, however, has slowly been increasing, and now stands at 4.3 per cent based on the last observations taken before the asteroid flew out of view of our telescopes until 2028. And according to Paul Wiegert at the University of Western Ontario in Canada and his colleagues, such a collision could still cause significant damage to Earth’s satellites. …
Wiegert and his team calculated that 2024 YR4 could create a kilometre-wide crater on the moon – the largest lunar impact for at least the past 5000 years, though relatively small compared with a typical crater. An impact of this size would eject a cloud of debris into space, and by simulating its potential behaviour 10,000 times, the team found that this could cause Earth’s satellites to experience a level of collisions equivalent to what we would expect to see in years or even decades, but occurring in just a few days.
They do state that, depending on conditions, satellites may be damaged rather than destroyed, but since satellites are difficult to repair, this, too, is serious. Replacement may be the only option.
Or maybe the asteroid will miss the Earth and Moon.
