Why is SpaceX pushing to lower the altitude of its Starlink satellites?

SpaceX recently requested the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow the company to deploy its Starlink satellites into a lower orbit. According to the company, this could reduce the increasing number of space debris outside Earth in the future.

Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious project to establish a constellation of artificial satellites in space. The main objective of the project is to provide high-speed space Internet to different parts of the world.

SpaceX Request to FCC

SpaceX currently has around 360 satellites in low Earth orbit. On Wednesday April 22, the company will launch another 60 Starlink units into space. Before launch, the company submitted a request to the FCC regarding the orbital altitude of its satellites. According to SpaceNews.com, SpaceX is seeking approval from the government agency to allow the company to operate its satellites from a much lower orbit.

Lower Starlink operating altitude

SpaceX originally planned to deploy its Starlink satellites from an altitude of around 1,150 kilometers from Earth. In a request submitted by the company to the FCC in April last year, the agency allowed the company to operate around 1,600 of its satellites from a lower altitude of just 550 kilometers.

On Friday (April 17), SpaceX filed another request with the FCC asking the agency to grant the same approval to an additional 2,800 satellites, bringing the total to 4,400. These satellites are the first generation Starlink units that were launched and are currently being deployed by SpaceX. Similar to its request last year, SpaceX is asking the FCC to allow it to reduce the operating altitude of the 2,800 satellites to about 550 kilometers.

SpaceX’s effort to reduce space debris

As explained by the company, reducing the altitude of the satellites’ orbit has nothing to do with their effectiveness. Instead, SpaceX wants to deploy satellites at lower altitudes to prevent the accumulation of space debris hovering outside of Earth.

According to the company, the dead satellites that orbit the planet from an altitude of less than 650 kilometers are more susceptible to Earth’s gravitational pull. Instead of remaining in orbit, these dead satellites will return to Earth in about 25 years.