The planned Starlink constellation is actually quite a bit bigger, but even if there's 20k satellites whizzing around it's not a huge problem.
I think it's sometimes hard to reason about the vastness of space, but imagine if the planet Earth had exactly 20,000 cars on it's surface. Even if you crossed the street without looking, your odds of getting hit by a car would be incredibly low. And ofc in reality low earth orbit is bigger than the surface of the earth AND we know where every obstacle is located. If humanity ever gets to the point where we decide it's too crowded, most of these constellations are low enough that they'd naturally deorbit in less than a decade.
Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.
- Douglas Adams
I think it's sometimes hard to reason about the vastness of space, but imagine if the planet Earth had exactly 20,000 cars on it's surface. Even if you crossed the street without looking, your odds of getting hit by a car would be incredibly low. And ofc in reality low earth orbit is bigger than the surface of the earth AND we know where every obstacle is located. If humanity ever gets to the point where we decide it's too crowded, most of these constellations are low enough that they'd naturally deorbit in less than a decade.