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Satellite Mega-Constellations Are a 'House of Cards' Scientists Warn in Alarming News Study A Classic Phrase for a Modern Space Crisis "House of cards" is a classic English phrase, though today it is often linked with a popular Netflix political drama. Its original meaning, however, describes a structure that is inherently unstable — a definition that fits uncomfortably well with today's satellite mega-constellations. That is the phrase used by Sarah Thiele , formerly a PhD student at the University of British Columbia and now at Princeton , and her co-authors in a new preprint paper on arXiv . Their choice of words is well supported by the numbers. Across all low-Earth-orbit (LEO) mega-constellations, a "close approach" — defined as two satellites passing within one kilometer of each other — occurs every 22 seconds . Starlink Alone Faces Constant Collision Threats Starlink satellites encounter close approaches roughly every 11 minutes Each satellite p...