Elon Musk's SpaceX to Lower Starlink Satellites to Cut Collision Risk in Earth Orbit

New Delhi: Elon Musk's Starlink will begin lowering the orbit of its satellite constellation next year, moving spacecraft currently operating at about 550 km above Earth down to 480 km over the course of 2026, a senior SpaceX executive said on Thursday.

Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s vice president of Starlink engineering, said the move was aimed at improving space safety by reducing the risk of collisions in low Earth orbit.

The announcement follows an incident disclosed by Starlink in December, when one of its satellites experienced an anomaly in space, creating a “small” amount of debris and cutting off communications with the spacecraft at an altitude of about 418 km. The company said the satellite, one of nearly 10,000 in orbit, quickly fell about four kilometres in altitude, suggesting that some kind of explosion had 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 the social media platform X. He added that “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 risen sharply in recent years as companies and countries race to deploy tens of thousands of satellites for broadband internet, 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 providing internet services to consumers, governments and enterprise customers.