According to Nicolls, the change is designed to place satellites in a less crowded orbital band, where they can be more easily managed and deorbited if something goes wrong.
Source: Starlink updates on X — https://x.com/starlink
The announcement follows a recent Starlink satellite anomaly that resulted in debris being released in orbit. Starlink disclosed that the issue involved venting from a propulsion tank, which caused a rapid orbital decay and the release of “a small number of trackable low relatively velocity objects.”
Orbital tracking firm LeoLabs later assessed that the event was likely caused by “an internal energetic source rather than a collision with space debris or another object.”
Source: LeoLabs — https://leolabs.space
Michael Nicolls Claims Launches Add to the Risk
The incident reinforced the importance of rapid deorbiting capabilities, especially as the number of satellites in low Earth orbit continues to rise.
Just days before the orbit-lowering announcement, Michael Nicolls publicly raised concerns about a near miss involving satellites launched from China. He noted that the satellites appeared to have been deployed with little to no coordination with existing satellite operators.
