SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission that it brought down 260 Starlink satellites in six months. The figure comes from the company’s semi-annual report on its constellation. Between December 2025 and May 2026, 176 first-generation satellites and 84 of the larger second-generation ones were taken out of orbit on purpose.
The number sounds alarming. It is not unusual. In 2024 the company found a problem in a small group of version-one satellites that could raise their odds of failing, and it deorbited 406 of them in response. Nearly 500 more followed between December 2024 and May 2025.
Burning up on purpose
Starlink satellites are built to burn up on reentry. To keep accidents unlikely, SpaceX normally brings them down over open ocean, away from populated islands and busy air or sea lanes. It can aim because the satellites keep attitude control down to around 125 km.
Waiting for a dead satellite to fall by itself would be worse, the company argues. “Controlled, propulsive deorbit is much shorter and safer than a comparable uncontrolled, ballistic deorbit from an equivalent altitude and allows all Starlink satellites to maintain maneuverability and collision avoidance capabilities during the descent,” SpaceX said.
Not everything vanishes. SpaceX has acknowledged that some parts have high melting points and could get through reentry intact. On the Starlink V2 mini, it believes silicon from the solar cells could survive. The company estimates that only around 5 percent of a satellite’s mass makes it through, and that those pieces would land as very small fragments with negligible impact energy, most likely in the sea.
A bigger sky ahead
Orbital Radar, a satellite tracking platform, counts more than 9,500 active Starlink satellites. That is the reason deorbits are routine, and there is no set schedule for them. SpaceX has also filed an application with the FCC to launch a million satellites for an orbital data center tied to SpaceXAI.
The company’s own documents say its satellites fly below 600 kilometers, where atmospheric drag would pull one down naturally within five years. A 2022 FCC rule requires operators in low Earth orbit to deorbit within five years of finishing a mission. This year Michael Nicolls, SpaceX’s VP of Starlink Engineering, announced that satellites now at around 550 kilometers will be lowered to 480 kilometers through 2026. He said the amount of debris and the number of planned constellations are “significantly lower below 500 kilometers,” which cuts the combined chance of collision, and that deorbiting from there is quicker. Elon Musk said the lower altitude would also let Starlink serve more customers.
What the ash does
Scientists are still working out the atmospheric cost. Harvard Climate Brief notes that carbon-fiber composites release black carbon, or soot, when they burn, and its effect, if any, is unclear. Researchers have also raised the possibility that aluminum in satellites turns into aluminum oxide particles that 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.” He does not see a reason for worry yet. But if aluminum oxide keeps building up as deorbits grow more frequent, it could slow the recovery of the ozone layer, which began after chlorofluorocarbons were phased out in 1987.
Amazon, with its Leo broadband service, and Chinese firms are also launching mega-constellations in large batches.
