SpaceX told the Federal Communications Commission that it deliberately burned up 260 Starlink satellites between December 2025 and May 2026. The company disclosed the figure in a semi-annual report. Of the 260, 176 came from the first-generation constellation and the rest from the second.
Another 349 satellites were taken out of service during the same six months and are queued for disposal in the coming months.
How a Starlink dies
Starlink now runs more than 10,000 satellites, and each is built to last about 5 years. That short life is partly by design, since it lets SpaceX swap in newer versions. When fuel runs low, the satellite uses what remains for a controlled descent. It drops its altitude and falls into the atmosphere, where friction incinerates the whole spacecraft.
Bringing the old hardware back is out of the question, according to SpaceX. First-generation units weigh roughly 573 to 650 pounds (260 to 295 kg), and second-generation ones 1,764 to 2,756 pounds (800 to 1,250 kg). The company calls retrieval technically impractical and financially unviable, so burning them up is the method.
Starlink reportedly retires multiple satellites a day.
What worries researchers
Nothing falls to the ground, since the satellites disintegrate completely. The concern is higher up. Researchers have asked for more study of what the burn-ups do to the atmosphere, along with rules on the environmental impact of satellites.
Rules are thin. The FCC has long kept satellites out of environmental reviews, reportedly out of worry that regulation would slow the space race. Any such rules would probably fall under the National Environmental Protection Act, or NEPA. The commission is now formally proposing to exempt space-based operations from NEPA on the grounds that they are “extraterritorial activities.” The proposal has not been approved.
Bigger plans ahead
The disposals will keep coming if SpaceX reaches its goal. The company aims to deploy up to 42,000 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit in phases, and in January it won FCC approval for 7,500 more Gen2 satellites. It is also planning Starlink Mobile, which would send internet straight to phones.
Beyond that, SpaceX has unveiled the A1, an orbital data center satellite carrying a 120 kW compute payload. An 11-million-square-foot factory, called Gigasat, is under construction to build them.
