Starlink has begun a large-scale «reconfiguration» of its satellite constellation: some of the devices will be moved to a lower orbit to reduce the risk of incidents in congested space traffic.
Starlink has begun a large-scale «reconfiguration» of its satellite constellation: some of the devices will be moved to a lower orbit to reduce the risk of incidents in congested space traffic.
According to Engadget, Starlink vice president of engineering Michael Nichols told X that the company will drop about 4,400 satellites from an altitude of about 550 km to about 480 km during 2026. Below 500 km, he said, there are significantly fewer debris objects and planned clusters, so the overall probability of collisions should decrease.
Separately, Nichols tied the solution to the solar cycle: closer to solar minimum (expected in the early 2030s), the density of the atmosphere drops, and satellites «stay» at the same altitude longer. Lowering the orbit, he claims, will reduce the time of ballistic ascent by more than 80%: up to several months if the device loses control.
The announcement comes after a reported anomaly on one of its Starlink satellites, which caused a small amount of debris to appear, and amid complaints about uncoordinated launches and maneuvers by other operators. Starlink believes that the «densification» of orbits and lower operating altitudes will further increase the safety of the constellation as the number of devices in low Earth orbit increases.
SpaceX is actively scaling Starlink, and the more satellites operate in close orbital «layers», the more important the rules for coordinating maneuvers, automatic collision avoidance, and the ability to quickly deorbit devices in the event of a failure become.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how SpaceX reported that the number of its Starlink users had reached 9 million in 155 countries.
