Starlink plans to lower satellite orbit to enhance safety in 2026

In this time-exposure photograph, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the 25th batch of approximately 60 satellites for SpaceX's Starlink broadband network lifts off from the Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., late Wednesday, April 28, 2021. (AP Photo/John Raoux, File)

Starlink will begin a reconfiguration of its satellite constellation by lowering all of its satellites orbiting at around 550 km (342 miles) to 480 km over the course of 2026, Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink engineering, said on Thursday.

The company is looking to increase space safety by lowering the satellites’ orbit.

This comes after Starlink said in December that one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in space, creating a “small” amount of debris and cutting off communications with the spacecraft at 418 km in altitude, a rare kinetic accident in orbit for the satellite internet giant.

The company had said the satellite, one of nearly 10,000 in space for its broadband internet network, quickly fell 4 km in altitude, suggesting some kind of explosion occurred on board.

“Lowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways,” Nicolls said in a post on social media platform X, adding “the number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500 km, reducing the aggregate likelihood of collision.”

The number of spacecraft in Earth’s orbit has jumped sharply in recent years as companies and countries race to deploy tens of thousands of satellites for internet constellations and other space-based services such as communications and Earth imagery.

SpaceX, long known for its rocket launch business, has become the world’s largest satellite operator through Starlink, a network of nearly 10,000 satellites beaming broadband internet to consumers, governments and enterprise customers.