A new study from NASA’s Ames Research Center highlights a troubling trend for space telescopes, particularly the SPHEREx, which has found that 73.3% of its images collected between May and September of the previous year are contaminated by artificial satellite trails. This contamination occurs despite SPHEREx operating at an altitude of 700 km above Earth, where it was expected to avoid such interference. The study notes an average of 2.18 satellite trails per exposure, primarily from large satellite constellations. The Hubble Space Telescope is also affected, with satellite interference increasing from 2.8% in the early 2000s to 5.9% in 2021. Projections suggest that if current plans for satellite launches proceed, SPHEREx could see 100% of its images contaminated, with an average of 189 trails per image. Despite attempts by satellite designers to reduce brightness, newer satellite systems are proving to be even brighter, exacerbating the issue. The study calls for urgent international action to address this growing problem for astronomical observations.