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 astronomical telescopes could be catastrophic. Should such a scheme be considered for an industry standard, the astronomical impact must be evaluated prior to deployment. The thought that every satellite would be equipped with a flashing light is a nightmare scenario for astronomers.

At the time of writing, many Starlink satellites appear on the Laser Clearinghouse exclusion list. The point of this list is to indicate the orbits of certain satellites that could be damaged if they cross a powerful laser beam from, e.g., an astronomy adaptive optics (AO) system. Such systems are prohibited from operating when those satellites are overhead. It is our understanding that Starlink satellites do not need to be on this list and would likely not be damaged by AO lasers. Presumably other satellite constellations are similarly designed. The rapidly increasing number of satellites from multiple operators means that this issue ought to be remedied promptly to avoid hindering precise astronomical observations that utilize AO. Rh