CAPE CANAVERAL, July 7 — SpaceX has deorbited 260 Starlink satellites in the first six months of 2025, a sharp acceleration from the 200 deorbited in all of 2024 and 150 in 2023. The record shows the company is now disposing of its older-generation hardware at a pace that outstrips previous years. According to the company, deorbiting is part of normal fleet management, intended to replace aging satellites with newer models, including the V2 Mini and V3 variants.
The timeline of the Starlink program began with the first batch of satellites launched in May 2019. As of June 2025, SpaceX has launched over 7,000 satellites, with approximately 6,200 currently operational.
The constellation now provides broadband internet to over 4 million subscribers in more than 100 countries. Each satellite weighs about 2,700 pounds, or 1,225 kilograms, and carries a design life of five years. Industry analysts estimate the cost of each satellite at $250,000 to $500,000.
On that math, the 260 deorbited satellites represent a hardware loss of between $65 million and $130 million.
Revenue and expansion
The company’s revenue from Starlink was estimated at $4.2 billion in 2024, according to industry analysts. That figure provides context for the cost of the deorbit campaign: the hardware write-off, while substantial, is a fraction of annual revenue. SpaceX plans to launch a total of 42,000 satellites for the full constellation.
The Federal Communications Commission granted licenses for 12,000 satellites in 2018 and an additional 30,000 in 2022. The rapid growth of the constellation has drawn scrutiny from astronomers, who have raised concerns about light pollution and radio interference.
More recently, environmental questions have emerged about the effects of satellite reentries.
Environmental and scientific concerns
Sources familiar with the issue note that the increasing rate of deorbits introduces new environmental considerations. Each reentry burns up in the atmosphere, and the cumulative effect of thousands of satellites returning to Earth has not been fully studied. Astronomers have also documented the impact of the constellation on ground-based observations.
The bright trails of Starlink satellites can interfere with telescope exposures, and the radio emissions from the satellites pose additional challenges for sensitive instruments. SpaceX has stated that the newer V2 Mini and V3 satellites are designed with mitigations, including darker coatings and reduced radio interference.
The company has also worked with the astronomy community on software tools to predict satellite positions and schedule observations around them.
Fleet management and replacement cycle
The five-year design life of each satellite means that the oldest units from the initial 2019 launches are now reaching the end of their operational window. The 260 deorbited in the first half of 2025 represent a deliberate replacement cycle, according to the company. The cost of the deorbit campaign, while not trivial, is built into the business model.
With estimated revenue of $4.2 billion in 2024, the company has the financial capacity to sustain the replacement cycle. The question moving forward is how the pace of deorbits will scale as the constellation grows toward its planned 42,000 satellites.
If the current rate holds, the annual deorbit count could rise significantly, compounding both the financial cost and the environmental questions. For now, the record shows a company executing on its stated plan: deorbiting older satellites and launching newer ones, as the constellation expands and the subscriber base grows.
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