Starlink is lowering its remaining satellites above 500 km into lower shells by the end of 2026
Why it matters:
A failed satellite at ~550 km can linger for 4+ years during solar minimum. At ~480 km, ballistic decay time drops by more than 80% to just a few months
Retired Starlinks are normally deorbited using propulsion. If that fails, atmospheric drag becomes the backup
Lower altitude makes that backup much faster
With 11,000+ Starlinks in orbit, even a small safety gain scales massively
Michael Nicolls just just laid out SpaceX's ambition for connectivity that extends beyond Earth
“We will connect the Moon with a constellation, and then we will connect Mars”
"Our goal, again, is to extend consciousness beyond this planet, and we want to go and connect the Moon and Mars
But before that on Starlink, we're creating the technologies to connect the Moon with very high-bandwidth connectivity systems, very high-bandwidth lasers
And we will connect the Moon with a constellation, and then we will connect Mars, and we will form an interplanetary mesh of connectivity that is fundamentally driven by the same technologies we're working on with Starlink
To make this happen, SpaceX needs to keep improving safety in LEO so everyone can operate and scale safely”
Build safe, coordinated infrastructure in LEO first then extend connectivity and human presence to the Moon, Mars, and beyond
SpaceXAI President Michael Nicolls explains why SpaceX started Starlink:
To connect humanity
Before Starlink, roughly a third of the world was offline or lacked reliable broadband
SpaceX set out to solve that problem from orbit
Now Starlink has grown into the largest satellite constellation in history...bringing internet to most underserved communities and some of the most remote places on Earth, giving people the opportunity to connect to the global network and fundamentally transforming lives
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