{"id":217640,"date":"2026-01-05T09:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/217640\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T09:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T09:52:19","slug":"spacex-will-move-more-than-4400-satellites-to-a-lower-orbit-after-china-cited-safety-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/217640\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX will move more than 4,400 satellites to a lower orbit after China cited safety risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

SpaceX<\/a> has announced it will reconfigure its Starlink internet satellite constellation by lowering the orbit of more than 4,400 satellites throughout 2026, shortly after Beijing said the project<\/a> posed \u201csafety and security challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move aims to relocate the satellites to orbital regions less crowded by space debris and other planned satellite constellations, reducing the risk of collisions and allowing satellites to deorbit faster.<\/p>\n

It comes after an unnamed representative from Beijing criticised the satellite constellation developed by Elon Musk\u2019s SpaceX<\/a> during an informal meeting of the UN Security Council, stating that the network crowded shared satellite orbital resources and increased the risk of crashes in space.
\n<\/p>\n

01:11<\/p>\n

SpaceX launches another test flight of its mega Starship rocket<\/p>\n

SpaceX launches another test flight of its mega Starship rocket<\/p>\n

\u201cStarlink is beginning a significant reconfiguration of its satellite constellation focused on increasing space safety,\u201d Michael Nicolls, vice-president of engineering at Starlink, said in a social media post on Friday, China time.<\/p>\n

Nicolls said the altitude of its satellites orbiting at around 550km (342 miles) would be lowered to around 480km over the course of 2026, a feat that would involve shifting more than 4,400 satellites.<\/p>\n

\u201cLowering the satellites results in condensing Starlink orbits, and will increase space safety in several ways,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe number of debris objects and planned satellite constellations is significantly lower below 500km, reducing the aggregate likelihood of collision\u201d.<\/p>\n

Internet satellites in low Earth orbit are often launched to altitudes of around 500km to 1,200km. The International Space Station orbits at an altitude of 400km, while China\u2019s Tiangong space station orbits between 340km and 450km.<\/p>\n

Nicolls said the benefits would include more than 80 per cent reduction in ballistic decay time \u2013 the time it takes for an object in orbit to fall back to Earth \u2013 during the incoming solar minimum, which is expected around 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SpaceX has announced it will reconfigure its Starlink internet satellite constellation by lowering the orbit of more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[4177,607,131453,516,128724,13559,128987,111,139,69,8105,147,131452,14095,392,1023,50008,1503,1504,21180],"class_list":["post-217640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-department-of-defence","tag-elon-musk","tag-guowang-network","tag-international-space-station","tag-michael-nicolls","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-russia","tag-science","tag-shanghai-government-backed-qianfan-broadband-network","tag-south-china-morning-post","tag-space","tag-space-debris","tag-space-safety","tag-spacex","tag-starlink","tag-tiangong-space-station"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}