On October 19, a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Vandenberg SFB, delivering Starlink’s 10,000th satellite into orbit. In fact, it delivered many satellites, bringing the SpaceX internet service’s total number up to 10,006. For reference, though it’s hard to pin down exact numbers, the European Space Agency believes there are about 12,500 active satellites in orbit right now, total.
Just to be clear, that doesn’t mean there are actually 10,000 little Starlink orbiters in space right now, as Ars Technica notes. Once they reach their retirement age, which only takes a few years, they are typically de-orbited, meaning they eventually fall back into the atmosphere. Hopefully, they just burn up completely, as designed. However, each re-entering satellite runs the risk of having one piece remain intact and crash back to Earth, a problem that’s only getting worse as satellites become more and more numerous. Accounting for the retired ones, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell estimates that there are 8,704 Starlink satellites in orbit right now, 8,688 of which are still functioning.
Filling the void
That’s still a huge number of orbiters all coming from one single service; the Starlink constellation now accounts for two-thirds of all working satellites. SpaceX’s rapid drive to build out a proliferated constellation is filling up low-Earth orbit in a way that’s never happened before. On the one hand, this has allowed for remote access to the internet that is unprecedented, helping everyone from sailors on Coast Guard ships to soldiers in the Ukraine War (when SpaceX CEO Elon Musk allows it).
On the other hand, this many satellites in orbit makes the risk of collision very high. The U.S. Space Force currently keeps an eye on nearly 47,000 objects in space, from functioning and dead satellites to tiny pieces of debris. Starlink already does tens of thousands of maneuvers every year to avoid crashing into anything. But SpaceX wants tens of thousands more satellites in the near future.
Meanwhile, other operators want to start creating their own satellites, from startups to big corporations to other countries. At this rate, space is going to get very full indeed. Any collision is a risk to all other satellites in orbit (because of the resulting debris field), and also to us here on the ground that might get struck by a stray piece. So it is indeed impressive that SpaceX has single-handedly changed the nature of humanity’s presence in orbit, as this 10,000th satellite makes clear. What that change brings remains to be seen.
