Starlink lowers altitude for over 4,000 satellites after near miss with a Chinese satellite

SpaceX initiates massive orbital reconfiguration to avoid "Kessler Syndrome" chaos after lack of coordination with Chinese launch.

SpaceX has begun lowering the altitude of more than 4,400 Starlink satellites after a harrowing "near-miss" in December where a newly launched Chinese satellite passed within just 200 meters (roughly 650 feet) of a Starlink craft at orbital speeds of 17,000 mph.

The crisis began on December 10, 2025, following a launch from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China.

The close call

A Chinese Earth-imaging satellite (designated 2025-292A) swept past STARLINK-6079 with zero warning. According to SpaceX VP Michael Nicolls, the orbital data for the Chinese satellite was shared just 14 minutes before the close approach.

This left SpaceX with almost no time to perform a standard collision avoidance maneuver.

Nicolls pointedly noted a lack of "coordination or deconfliction" from the Chinese side, warning that operators are currently "flying blind" with one another in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).

Why 480km is the "safe zone"

By moving nearly half of its active 9,000 satellite fleet to a lower orbit, SpaceX is playing a long game of safety and diplomacy.

• Faster deorbiting: At 480km, atmospheric drag is much stronger. If a satellite fails, it will now naturally re-enter the atmosphere and burn up in months rather than the 4+ years it would take at the higher 550km altitude.

• Avoiding the crowd: The 500km–600km band is becoming a "traffic jam" of planned mega-constellations from China, Amazon, and various nation-states. Dropping below this band reduces the "aggregate likelihood" of a catastrophic chain reaction of collisions, known as Kessler Syndrome.

• Improved performance: Lowering the altitude also has the side effect of reducing latency and improving signal quality for Starlink users on the ground.

The cost of safety

While the move makes space safer, it isn't free for SpaceX. Operating at a lower altitude means fighting more "air" (atmospheric density).

Satellites at the new 480km altitude experience nearly 2.5 times more orbital decay daily than they did at 560km.

Moreover, to stay in orbit, the satellites must fire their ion thrusters more frequently, which will deplete their fuel reserves faster and shorten their operational lifespan.

This effectively forces SpaceX to accelerate its launch schedule to replace satellites more often, potentially increasing the total number of launches per year.

A diplomatic move

The massive reconfiguration is as much a PR move as a technical one. By being the first to "move out of the way," SpaceX is positioning itself as the "responsible adult" in the room, putting pressure on China and other emerging space powers to share their tracking data more transparently.

However, Chinese researchers have warned that moving 4,400 satellites at once is itself a "high-risk window," as thousands of crossing trajectories create a massive temporary test for autonomous collision-avoidance systems.