Starlink implements a targeted reentry approach to deorbit satellites over the open ocean as part of commitment to space safety
Starlink- the world’s largest satellite constellation operator serves millions of customers around the globe with high-speed, low-latency internet. The company has recently shared its constellation health status update showcasing several healthy, actively deorbited, dead as doornail and deorbited satellites.
This update is said to describe how Starlink approaches satellite demisability that ensures that deorbiting satellites results in no risk to humans on the ground, at sea, or in the air due to impact from satellite fragments.
Starlink implements a targeted reentry approach to deorbit satellites over the open ocean, away from populated islands and heavily trafficked airline and maritime routes.
This targeted reentry approach is the result of significant technical development and on-orbit testing by… pic.twitter.com/MPox4vCDkV
— Starlink (@Starlink) February 27, 2025
As part of Starlink’s commitment to space safety, the company now implements a targeted reentry approach to deorbit satellites over the open ocean, away from populated islands and heavily trafficked airline and maritime routes. This targeted reentry approach is the result of significant technical development and on-orbit testing by Starlink.
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 round its analysis, such as putting printed circuit boards (PCB) under reentry-like heating conditions in plasma chambers. The V2 Mini and V3 Starlink satellites have been designed with sufficient control authority that they too can be deorbited with targeted reentry over the open ocean.
Starlink is targeting an impact energy of <3 Joules at the component level. It is said that a reentering V2-mini than 1 in 100 million, is significantly more conservative than the current industry standard. To reduce the impact energy of the core of inductors and transformers, SpaceX is limiting the size and the mass of each inductor core, even at the cost of reducing their efficiency and increasing the complexity of the system design.
Developing ways to target entry over low-population regions and actively testing to improve demisability models are said to be examples of Starlink’s proactive approach to responsible and sustainable large constellation operations.
