In response to rapidly increasing operational risks in low Earth orbit (LEO), SpaceX has decided to significantly reconfigure its infrastructure. Elon Musk’s company has announced a massive redeployment of part of its constellation to a lower altitude as a response to the problem of space debris and orbital congestion. The operation, planned for 2026, will involve around 4400 Starlink satellites.
According to Michael Nicholls, director of engineering at SpaceX, craft currently orbiting at an altitude of 550 kilometres will be brought down to an orbit of 480 kilometres. While a difference of 70 kilometres may seem small, on the scale of orbital mechanics it is safety critical. Nicholls argues that a lower orbit drastically reduces the natural deorbit time of inactive satellites by more than 80 per cent. This means that in the event of a device failure, they will burn up much more quickly in the atmosphere, freeing up valuable space.
The decision is a direct result of the deteriorating situation in space around the Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that there are currently around 40,000 tracked objects orbiting below the 2,000 kilometre ceiling. Only 11,000 of these are functioning satellites, with SpaceX’s dominance in this sector unquestionable. According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, the company owns more than 9300 active devices, making it the largest on-orbit operator.
Moving satellites below the 500-kilometre limit is also a tactical escape from collisions. The area is now less crowded, minimising the risk of collisions with uncoordinated manoeuvres by other operators and small debris. ESA warns of the existence of more than 1.2 million objects larger than a centimetre that could cause catastrophic damage to infrastructure. SpaceX’s move may be perceived by the market not only as a concern for its own resources, but also as an attempt to impose new standards of risk management in the NewSpace sector, where ‘sustainability’ is beginning to apply to extraterrestrial space as well.
