The year 2025 ended with more than 14,000 active satellites from all nations zooming around the Earth. One-third of them will soon move to lower altitudes.<\/p>\n
The maneuvers will be undertaken by SpaceX, the owner of the largest satellite fleet in orbit. About 4,400 of the company\u2019s Starlink Internet satellites will move from an altitude of 341 miles (550 kilometers) to 298 miles (480 kilometers) over the course of 2026, according to Michael Nicolls, SpaceX\u2019s vice president of Starlink engineering.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety,\u201d Nicolls wrote Thursday in a post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n The maneuvers undertaken with the Starlink satellites\u2019 plasma engines will be gradual, but they will eventually bring a large fraction of orbital traffic closer together. The effect, perhaps counterintuitively, will be a reduced risk of collisions between satellites whizzing through near-Earth space at nearly 5 miles per second. Nicolls said the decision will \u201cincrease space safety in several ways.\u201d<\/p>\n Why now?<\/p>\n There are fewer debris objects at the lower altitude, and although the Starlink satellites will be packed more tightly, they follow choreographed paths distributed in dozens of orbital lanes. \u201cThe number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500 km, reducing the aggregate likelihood of collision,\u201d Nicolls wrote.<\/p>\n The 4,400 satellites moving closer to Earth make up nearly half of SpaceX\u2019s Starlink fleet. At the end of 2025, SpaceX had nearly 9,400 working satellites in orbit, including more than 8,000 Starlinks in operational service and hundreds more undergoing tests and activation.<\/p>\n