We may not be able to send new missions to space again sometime soon. If all the current plans for constellation launches go unimpeded, we may soon reach one million (or more) satellites in orbit, plus tens of billions of smaller fragments. Launching anything through such a busy sky without hitting anything may soon become impossible.

We may also lose the ability to observe any astronomical events from earth. At least Elon Musk was forced to coat his satellites in pitch black and keep them small, while AST's satellites are 64 times bigger and brighter.

And, when you talk to them about these problems, they'll respond to you with the usual "we're working with astronomers bla bla" (the why did you launch a cube as big as an apartment that already shines more than any other star in the sky?), or "at least we're only planning to launch 90 of them, while others are planning to launch tens of thousands" - that's like saying "yes, I shouldn't dump my garbage in the middle of the street, but why don't you talk to my neighbours too, who are dumping way more garbage than me?"

Years ago, Western countries had functioning governments, which would usually prevent a private corporation from taking over a public resource (like our own sky) in a way that harms everyone else in the process.

Nowadays, nobody even bothers to blink. If the market has decided that we all need dozens of 5G constellations in the sky that are brighter than the brightest stars, and will harm any future plans of space exploration, the let it be it I guess. Apparently we're only relying on the goodwill of the CEOs of these companies to "take initiative and speak to astronomers", not on a functioning government that does its regulatory job.

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/10/04/2259256/a-new-satellite-outshines-some-of-the-brightest-stars-in-the-sky