SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission that it let 260 Starlink satellites burn up on re-entry between December 2025 and May 2026. The figure comes from the company’s semiannual report to the agency. Of those, 176 were first-generation Starlink units and the rest were second generation.
Another 349 satellites were decommissioned in the same period and are due to be disposed of in the coming months.
Scale of the constellation
Starlink is far past 10,000 satellites, and SpaceX is also preparing Starlink Mobile, a service meant to connect directly to phones. Each satellite is built to last about five years, after which its fuel runs out. The design is deliberate. It lets the company rotate in newer versions.
At the end of its life a satellite uses what propellant remains to run a controlled descent. It lowers its altitude and drops into the atmosphere, where friction incinerates the spacecraft. Starlink reportedly disposes of multiple satellites a day, and Tom’s Hardware reported it removed more than 472 satellite links from orbit between December 2024 and May 2025.
The company says bringing the old hardware back down intact is out of the question. First-generation units weigh roughly 573 to 650 pounds, second-generation units roughly 1,764 to 2,756 pounds, and SpaceX calls retrieval technically impractical and financially unviable.
Growth is the other half of the strategy. SpaceX aims to deploy up to 42,000 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit and won FCC approval in January for 7,500 additional Gen2 satellites. It has also unveiled plans for an A1 orbital data center satellite with a 120 kW compute payload, and it is building an 11-million-square-foot Gigasat factory for them.
Burn-up and the atmosphere
Burning leaves no falling debris. That is the upside. Researchers have asked what it does to the air, though, and have called for more study and regulation.
Satnews, citing scientists, pointed to aluminum oxide. When an aluminum satellite body vaporizes it turns into microscopic particles, and the concern is that a steady supply from thousands of deorbits could alter the stratosphere’s albedo and cause localized ozone depletion. The same report said environmental groups are using the deorbit numbers to press the FCC to drop its long-standing categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act, which would force full environmental impact statements on constellation operators.
The commission is heading the other way on paper. It has long kept satellites out of environmental reviews, reportedly out of concern that rules might slow the space race, and it is now proposing “that space-based operations be excluded from NEPA because they are ‘extraterritorial activities’ with effects located entirely outside of the jurisdiction of the United States.” The proposal has not been approved.
Satnews also reported that the FCC expects constellation operators to bring down retired satellites with at least 95% reliability, and that SpaceX’s filing shows a rate above 99%.
Sources
- SpaceX vaporizes 260 Starlink satellites in six months using Earth's atmosphere — new environmental concerns emerge over burning 2,700-pound orbital data centers, FCC seeks to exempt satellites from regulations
- SpaceX Controlled-Deorbit Report Discloses Decommissioning of 260 Starlink Satellites Over Six Months
