SpaceX’s orbital data centers would create a new category of e-waste

SpaceX's proposed constellation of 1 million AI satellites would permanently remove vast amounts of valuable materials from Earth's resource cycle. About 200,000 satellites would be decommissioned yearly, losing roughly 1,000 tons of copper, 170 kilograms of gold, and about 1% of global annual palladium and thallium supplies to space or atmospheric burnup.