By The Financial District
Sep 26, 20231 min
Satellite tracking data has revealed an increase in the number of burned Starlink satellites over the summer, as reported by Justinas Vainilavičius for Cybernews.
Satellite tracking data has revealed an increase in the number of burned Starlink satellites over the summer. I Photo: Mike Lewinski Flickr
Starlink, the satellite constellation operated by SpaceX, lost a total of 212 satellites from July 18 to September 18, according to data compiled by satellitemap.space.
The tracker noted that the number of burned-up satellites had been steadily increasing over the past three years, but a significant spike occurred starting in July 2023. Starlink satellites are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere at the end of their approximately five-year life cycle.
It remains uncertain whether these satellites were scheduled for de-orbit or if the burn-ups resulted from failures.
Some experts have raised questions about the accuracy of the numbers reported on the tracker website, as they appear unusually high. According to satellitemap.space, its figures are based on public tracking information published on space-track.org and other sources.
SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019, with over 5,000 sent into Earth's lower orbit since then. Approximately 4,500 of these are believed to be currently active.