Don't lose sleep over reports of 260 Starlink satellites deorbiting

Don't lose sleep over reports of 260 Starlink satellites deorbiting SpaceX proactively deorbits Starlink satellites, which burn up in the atmosphere. SpaceX recently submitted the semi-annual report for its satellite constellation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), revealing that it deorbited 260 Starlink satellites over the course of six months. From December 2025 until May 2026, it brought down 176 first-generation Starlink satellites and 84 of its bigger second-generation ones. While 260 sounds like a lot, it's not unusual for the company to deorbit that many within a six-month period. It wasn't even the largest number of satellites it deorbited within a similar timeframe. In 2024, SpaceX identified a common issue in a small population of version-one satellites that could increase the probability of failure. It deorbited 406 satellites in response to that finding and followed that up with nearly 500 satellites from December 2024 to May 2025. What happens when Starlink satellites deorbit? Starlink satellites were designed to burn up when they re-enter our planet's atmosphere. To prevent accidents, however, the company typically deorbits its satellites over open oceans and away from populated islands and locations with heavy air or maritime traffic. After all, one accidental collision could have a huge impact on the satellite broadband industry. To be able to target specific locations for re-entry, SpaceX maintains attitude control down to very low altitudes of around 125 km. However, SpaceX admitted that its satellites do have components that are likely to survive re-entry without fully disintegrating. Those components typically have high melting temperatures: For the Starlink V2 mini satellites, for instance, the company believes silicon from their solar cells could survive atmospheric burn. The company predicts that only around 5 percent of its satellites' mass could survive re-entry, and that those materials are bound to fall in very small fragments with negligible impact energy. In other words, even if some parts of its satellites don't burn up in the atmosphere, they'll likely fall into the ocean and make but a tiny splash. A critical aspect of sustainable satellite design is demisability, which ensures that satellites fully break up and burn up during atmospheric reentry. To fully understand the demise characteristics of its designs, Starlink does experimental testing to ground its analysis, such... pic.twitter.com/Fcvy1vC7Aw — Starlink (@Starlink) February 27, 2025 How often do Starlink satellites deorbit? Instead of waiting for its satellites to fail and fall on their own, SpaceX takes a proactive approach. "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," it explained. There's no set frequency for Starlink deorbits, but…