Data released by an independent researcher has revealed that SpaceX appears to now be “retiring and incinerating” about 4 or 5 Starlink broadband satellites from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) every day, which is up sharply from before May 2024, when the average was closer to just one per day. But the exact reason for this seeming mass retirement surge remains unclear.
At present Starlink’s network has almost 7,000 satellites in orbit (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.
However, according to data from Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who tracks orbiting satellites, SpaceX de-orbited a total 87 Starlink satellites during January 2025 alone and this follows a surge in similar activity over recent months. Just to put this in context, SpaceX said last year that they had the capacity to build up to 55 satellites per week and launch more than 200 per month.
The “reentry rate was mostly low until May 2024, then increased to one to two per day as SpaceX started some mass retirements. A second batch of retirements started in December at a rate of three to four per day,” he told PCMag. “Of 7,821 Starlinks launched (so far), 817 have been retired to reentry, including some that failed at birth” (over 500 of these were first generation [GEN] satellites).
The first thing to understand here is that smaller LEO satellites, such as those from operators like Starlink, OneWeb (Eutelsat), Amazon (Kuiper) and others, are designed to have a relatively short lifespan (e.g. Starlinks last for 5 years) – they’re like really expensive consumables. After that they will be directed back down by operators to burn up (incinerate), harmlessly, in our atmosphere.
Similarly, if they suffer a total failure, then the pull of gravity and atmospheric drag will ultimately de-orbit them naturally over a period of “5 years or less, depending on the altitude and satellite design,” says Starlink’s website (or within 6 months if operators can still command the thruster).
Suffice to say that, given the rise in launch rates over recent years, it is inevitable that Starlink will suffer a notable rise in retirements as the years roll by. But quite why we’ve seen such a sudden surge isn’t so clear, and it certainly won’t help the cost to benefit ratio of the network to have so many failings, often well before their designed lifetime has been reached.
The company has, on occasion, also had to retire large batches of Starlinks that failed at birth (e.g. being placed into the wrong orbit) or after they failed for other reasons (e.g. hardware malfunctions, disrupted by extreme solar storms etc.). Starlink can of course then replace these with more modern platforms.
In a letter to the US FCC last month, the company also said: “SpaceX proactively deorbits satellites before large issues develop based on detailed engineering analysis of the likelihood of critical system failures. SpaceX takes this costly approach out of an abundance of caution to best preserve and protect low Earth orbit.” The company confirmed, at the time, that they deorbited 149 satellites between June and November 2024.
Sadly, Starlink has not responded to requests for comment on the latest retirement trend, but it’s likely to be in keeping with the above reasons. Burning up such small satellites generally poses no direct risk to humans on the ground, although in recent months there have been some concerns raised about the potential impact on the ozone layer of vaporized metals. Astronomers have called on US regulators and senators to probe this, which might face some challenges in the current political environment.
