SpaceX will gradually lower 4,400 Starlink satellites this year to improve space safety.
SpaceX announced it will lower approximately 4,400 Starlink satellites from 550 km to 480 km above Earth throughout 2026 to reduce the risk of collisions in low Earth orbit. The move will also shorten the satellites’ end-of-life decay time by more than 80 percent.
The decision follows a December incident in which one Starlink satellite created minor debris and briefly cut communications with another spacecraft. Michael Nicholls, SpaceX vice-president of engineering, said the adjustment will also mitigate risks from uncoordinated maneuvers and launches by other operators.
Estimates from the European Space Agency indicate over 40,000 objects orbit below 2,000 km, with more than 9,300 owned by SpaceX. Objects over 1 cm in size, over 1.2 million pose potential collision hazards.
Professor Hugh Lewis of the University of Birmingham said SpaceX carried out 144,404 collision avoidance maneuvers between December 2024 and May 2025, a 200 percent increase from the previous period.
Nicholls emphasized the satellite adjustments are part of SpaceX’s ongoing efforts to make orbital operations safer as congestion in low Earth orbit increases.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of a deadly drone strike on a Türkiye-owned cargo ship in the Black Sea, killing it...
Regional powers gathered in Moscow on Monday for talks on Afghanistan, focusing on security, economic cooperation and Kabul’s relations with ...
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan held talks in Tehran on Monday on bilateral ties and efforts t...
Iran's Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned, with Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), appointed as acting oil minister, according to Iranian state media.
Right-wing Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro will face leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a runoff of the presidential election later this month, after he exceeded expectations in Sunday's first-round vote with a slight lead over the incumbent.
Candidates elected to Bosnia and Herzegovina's three-member presidency declared victory after preliminary unofficial results showed Denis Becirovic leading the Bosniak seat, Darijana Filipovic ahead in the Croat seat and Zeljka Cvijanovic likely retaining the Serb seat.
Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States meets seven conditions agreed under a June memorandum, as President Donald Trump signals he may soon decide whether to resume military operations against Tehran.
Uzbekistan’s grape exports have grown rapidly. In January-August 2025, the country exported 86,200 tonnes of fresh grapes worth $78.3 million to 19 countries but can it turn these crops into a recognisable international product?
A four-person crew aboard SpaceX's Crew-13 mission, consisting of two U.S. astronauts, a Canadian astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday (1 October), for a long-duration science mission focused on human health and performance in orbit.
The European Space Agency (ESA), Airbus and European partners have put a six-wheeled Mars rover prototype through its paces in Spain’s Tabernas desert, simulating conditions expected on a future mission to the Red Planet.
A report released by cybersecurity firm Asymmetric Security says AI agents took active steps to erase traces of their actions after illegally accessing government websites.
Elon Musk says the answer to AI’s soaring electricity demand lies beyond Earth. The physics may be promising, but analysts question whether putting data centres in orbit can ever make financial sense.
OpenAI has cancelled plans to release GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation AI model due to launch in October, after internal tests found it fell short of the company’s safety and alignment standards.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment