This is most smaller satellites, but all satellites must pass a burn up evaluation by the FCC and FAA before getting permission to fly. We had trouble getting one of our satellites up because it had a steel vacuum chamber for mass spec, and the FCC argued the thickness of the walls and materials used (steel) made it too difficult to burn up
The design of the vacuum chamber predates my time, but I'd imagine it has something to with the quality of the spectroscopy data you can collect in that environment.
Those articles pop up every now and then, and it usually turns out to be the cargo trunk of the Dragon spacecraft, which gets jettisoned before the craft performs its reentry maneuver. The trunk comes down usually a few months later. It survives reentry due to its low density carbon construction.
Starlink satellites, of which there are thousands in orbit, are designed to burn up on reentry.
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[ 5.1 ms ] story [ 31.9 ms ] threadStarlink satellites, of which there are thousands in orbit, are designed to burn up on reentry.