Starlink intends to progressively reduce the altitude of thousands of its satellites during 2026 in response to space safety considerations, the company announced.
Around 4,400 satellites presently operating at 550 kilometers above Earth will be repositioned to 480 kilometers over the course of the year, as stated by Michael Nicholls, SpaceX’s vice-president of engineering.
Repositioning the satellites to lower altitudes decreases the time required for a satellite to decay or reach the conclusion of its operational life by over 80 percent, he explained. Additionally, fewer satellites operate below 500 kilometers from Earth’s surface, which Nicholls indicated will diminish collision probability.
Nicholls also noted that positioning satellites at reduced altitudes enhances safety by mitigating risks associated with unplanned maneuvers and launches conducted by other satellite operators.
This decision follows an uncommon event in December when SpaceX reported that one of its satellites generated a small quantity of debris and disrupted communications with a spacecraft operating at 418 kilometers altitude. SpaceX stated it would investigate the incident’s cause.
SpaceX Collision Events Increase by 200 Percent, According to Specialist
Projections from the European Space Agency (ESA) indicate that 40,000 objects are flying in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at altitudes below 2,000 kilometers from Earth’s surface.
Among these objects, only 11,000 represent active payloads or satellites, with SpaceX controlling more than 9,300 of them based on December data from astronomer Jonathan McDowell, who maintains records on his website.
The ESA additionally discovered that over 1.2 million objects in space exceed 1 centimeter in size, a dimension the agency considers sufficient to inflict catastrophic damage.
To prevent collisions, satellites automatically modify their orbital paths when they approach too closely to another object. This process relies on information from national tracking systems such as the United States Space Command.
Hugh Lewis, a professor of aeronautics at the University of Birmingham, determined that SpaceX executed 144,404 conjunction risk mitigation maneuvers between December 2024 and May 2025, representing a 200 percent surge compared to the preceding six-month period.
Lewis attributed the rise in collisions to an expanded Starlink fleet and a growing number of objects orbiting Earth.
