SpaceX is powering the Starlink satellites, which are burning in space.
SpaceX recently submitted its constellation’s half-yearly report to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), revealing that it had launched 260 Starlink satellites within six months. From December 2025 until May 2026, it launched 176 first-generation Starlink satellites and 84 of its larger second-generation ones.
While 260 sounds like a lot, it’s not unusual for a company to launch multiple orbits within a six-month period. It was not even the largest number of satellites launched during the same period. In 2024, SpaceX identified a problem common to several version-one satellites that could increase the likelihood of failure. It launched 406 satellites in response to that discovery and followed that up with nearly 500 satellites from December 2024 to May 2025.
What happens when the Starlink satellites are in orbit?
Starlink satellites are designed to burn up upon re-entry into our planet’s atmosphere. However, to prevent accidents, the company usually places its satellites over the open ocean and away from populated islands and areas with high winds or marine traffic. After all, one accidental collision could have a major impact on the satellite broadband industry. To be able to target specific re-entry points, SpaceX maintains attitude control down to very low altitudes of about 125 km.
However, SpaceX has admitted that its satellites have parts that might survive if they were to re-enter without completely disintegrating. Those components typically have high melting temperatures: For the Starlink V2 small satellites, the company believes the silicon from its solar cells can survive the heat of space. The company predicts that only about 5 percent of the mass of its satellites would survive reentry, and that that material would fall into very small pieces with little energy and impact. In other words, even if some parts of its satellites do not burn up in space, they will probably fall into the ocean and make a small splash.
An important aspect of sustainable satellite design is decay, which ensures that satellites completely disintegrate and burn up during re-entry into space.
In order to fully understand the extinction characteristics of its designs, Starlink conducts experimental tests to support its analysis, such as… pic.twitter.com/Fcvy1vC7Aw
— Starlink (@Starlink) February 27, 2025
How often are Starlink satellites launched?
Instead of waiting for its satellites to fail and crash on their own, SpaceX is taking a faster approach. “The controlled, dynamic deorbit is much shorter and safer than the comparable uncontrollable deorbit, which takes off from the same position and allows all Starlink satellites to conserve momentum and avoid collisions during descent,” he explained.
There is no set frequency for Starlink deorbits, but they are a regular occurrence due to the size of the broadband service constellation. According to satellite tracking platform Orbital Radar, there are currently more than 9,500 active Starlink satellites out there, providing Internet access to customers even in remote locations. In the future, SpaceX will have more satellites in orbit, not just those designed to serve Starlink customers. It recently applied to the FCC to launch a million satellites to build SpaceXAI’s orbital data center.
In its Space Sustainability Commitment document, the company explained that its satellites orbit at altitudes of less than 600 kilometers and that wind drag at those altitudes will naturally dislodge the satellite within five years. It is also important to note that the FCC is adopting a rule in 2022 that requires Low Earth Orbit satellite operators to decommission their satellites within five years of the goal’s completion, in order to reduce the growth of orbital debris.
Earlier this year, Michael Nicolls, VP of Starlink Engineering at SpaceX, announced that the company is reducing the orbit of all satellites currently flying by about 550 kilometers to 480 kilometers by mid-2026. However, Nicolls said doing so would improve satellite security in many ways. The number of space debris and organized satellite constellations is “very low at less than 500 kilometers,” he said, “reducing the total collision probability.” In addition, it will be faster and faster to launch satellites from low altitudes. SpaceX owner Elon Musk said it would allow Starlink to serve more customers, too.
Does that mean Starlink deorbits have zero environmental impact?
Well, that’s what scientists are still trying to figure out. The number of satellites in orbit will continue to grow, as both American and Chinese companies launch large constellations of their own. In the US, there is Amazon, apart from SpaceX, which is also building a constellation for its Leo broadband service.
As Harvard Climate Brief explains, when satellite organic materials, such as carbon-fiber composites, burn, they emit black carbon particles, or what is known as soot. At present, their impact on space, if any, is unclear. Scientists have also expressed concern about how aluminum used in satellite construction can turn into aluminum oxide particles when it burns. Those particles can convert existing chlorine into its most active form.
“Chlorine is one of the key players in the ozone layer,” said John Dykema, an applied physicist at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “And so if you add a new environment that converts the existing chlorine into active and free forms, that will also promote ozone loss.” It doesn’t appear to be a cause for concern yet, but Dykema said if aluminum oxide in the atmosphere continues to accumulate due to more frequent satellite deorbits, it could delay the recovery of our ozone layer, which began when chlorofluorocarbons were released in 1987.
