"He said the firm plans to lower all of its units that orbit at about 550 km down to roughly 480 km during 2026. This comes after one Starlink satellite failed last month. During an incident, the sat both vented propellant, sending it tumbling out of control, and released debris. Nicolls claimed that changing orbits would increase space safety in several ways."
""As solar minimum approaches, atmospheric density decreases which means the ballistic decay time at any given altitude increases - lowering will mean a >80 percent reduction in ballistic decay time in solar minimum, or 4+ years reduced to a few months," he stated. The volume of debris and planned satellite constellations is also notably lower below 500 km, he added, which will reduce the likelihood of collisions."
"There has been growing unease over the number of satellite launches, particularly into low Earth orbit (LEO). As well as Starlink, Amazon's Project Kuiper aims to loft over 3,000 satellites to deliver broadband from space, while China is understood to have plans to put more than 10,000 into orbit to provide its own rival services to Starlink. With all that hardware circling the Earth at high velocity, there is a growing risk of collisions,"
Starlink will lower roughly half of its constellation from about 550 km to roughly 480 km during 2026, affecting about 4,400 of more than 9,000 operational satellites. The altitude reduction aims to shorten ballistic decay times by over 80 percent during the upcoming solar minimum, cutting orbital lifetimes from more than four years to a few months. Lower altitudes below 500 km have lower debris density and fewer planned constellations, reducing collision likelihood. A recent satellite failure vented propellant and released debris. The migration will be coordinated with other operators, regulators, and US Space Command amid rising LEO collision concerns.
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