this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2026
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It's actually pretty well understood that a starlink satellite's life span is approx. 5 years at which point it is intentionally deorbited, and any malfunctioning satellite's orbit would naturally decay within a few years as well.
That being said, I agree that there should be regulations about this. Feels like we're in a bit of a wild west situation.
Starlinks are good to passively deorbit from around 500 something km, but Amazon is higher at around 600km, Oneweb out at 1200km, Gouwong with a shell at 1100km, SDA at 900+... I'm more worried about the other ones with less experience that could die and stay up there.