SpaceX brought 260 Starlink satellites down through the atmosphere between Dec. 1, 2025, and May 31, 2026, according to a semiannual compliance report it filed with the Federal Communications Commission.
The filing said 176 of them were first-generation spacecraft and 84 were the larger second-generation type. Another 349 satellites were decommissioned in the same stretch and are expected to be disposed of in the coming months, Benzinga reported.
The number sounds large. Engadget pointed out that it is not unusual for the company, and not even a record. In 2024 SpaceX found a common problem in a small group of version-one satellites that could raise the odds of failure, and it deorbited 406 satellites in response. Nearly 500 more followed from December 2024 to May 2025.
How a deorbit works
At the end of a satellite’s life, it uses its remaining fuel to lower its orbit. Atmospheric drag does the rest, and heat and friction burn up the craft. Each satellite is designed to last about five years.
SpaceX does not wait for failures. “Controlled, propulsive deorbit is much shorter and safer than a comparable uncontrolled, ballistic deorbit from an equivalent altitude,” the company said, adding that satellites keep their maneuverability and collision avoidance during the descent. It typically aims re-entries at open ocean, away from populated islands and busy air or sea lanes, holding attitude control down to about 125 km.
Some parts will not burn. For the V2 mini satellites, SpaceX believes silicon from the solar cells could survive. It estimates that only around 5 percent of a satellite’s mass makes it through, in very small fragments with negligible impact energy.
Pulling dead satellites back is not practical, SpaceX says. First-generation units weigh about 573 to 650 pounds and second-generation versions about 1,764 to 2,756 pounds.
The ozone question
Scientists are still working out what all this burning does to the upper atmosphere. Aluminum in the satellites turns into aluminum oxide particles as it burns. Those particles could convert ambient chlorine into a highly reactive form.
“Chlorine is one of the key actors in the ozone hole,” said John Dykema, an applied physicist at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “And so if you add a new surface that converts existing chlorine into reactive and free radical forms, that will also promote ozone loss.”
Dykema did not describe it as a cause for worry yet. But he said that if aluminum oxide keeps building up as deorbits become more frequent, it could slow the recovery of the ozone layer, which began when chlorofluorocarbons were phased out in 1987. Burning carbon-fiber composites also releases black carbon, or soot, though its effect is unclear.
A bigger fleet coming
Starlink operates more than 10,000 satellites. Jonathan McDowell’s tracking data shows 1,357 have re-entered and burned up so far. In January the FCC approved 7,500 additional Gen2 satellites, and SpaceX has long discussed a constellation that could reach 42,000.
The company has also asked the FCC for permission to launch up to 1 million compute satellites for orbital data centers. Since 2022, an FCC rule has required low Earth orbit operators to deorbit satellites within five years of the end of their mission.
Sources
- Don't lose sleep over reports of 260 Starlink satellites deorbiting – Engadget
- SpaceX Controlled-Deorbit Report Discloses Decommissioning of 260 Starlink Satellites Over Six Months
- Elon Musk's SpaceX Deorbits 260 Starlink Satellites in Six Months, With Hundreds More Set to Burn Up
- Starlink
