Starlink satellites to be moved to lower orbit

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Hill

01/02/26 2:05 PM ET


(NewsNation) — SpaceX will be moving around 4,400 satellites to a lower orbit in 2026, according to a Starlink official.

Michael Nicholls, vice president of Starlink engineering, posted the news on social platform X, announcing the company’s plan to change the orbit of the satellites in order to reduce the chances of collision with others or space debris.

Earth’s orbit has become increasingly cluttered with satellites, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX is responsible for a significant portion of the rapid increase in objects in orbit.

One recent paper noted the risks of such a crowded orbit, suggesting that in the event that Earth lost the ability to control satellites as a result of something like a solar flare, scientists would have as little as three days to gain control before catastrophic collisions would begin to occur.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/technology/5670067-spacex-starlink-satellites-lower-orbit/

[in2herbs]

1. I may be wrong but hasn't it been stated that Elon moved Starlink satellites to a lower orbit and that that

move coincided with the 2024 alleged election fraud???

[Timewas]

2. I do not

Trust this entire system, Iam being a little paranoid here but there is more to these things than simple low orbit internet....

[stopdiggin]

3. there was no 'fraud' - and Starlink had absolutely zero to do with the election, or results.

[popsdenver]

10. But Trump definitely did say.......,

at his acceptance speech, "Thank you Musk you are a computer genius and you helped a great deal with winning? the election"......("along with repeatedly thanking all the un-educated that voted for him" and saying that "He loves the un-educated&quot

[stopdiggin]

12. Trump says a LOT of sh*t. I take very little if any of it at face value

And, in point of fact - take an utterance thereof, as suggestive at least of falsehood on its face.

[jgmiller]

22. While I believe Trump would rig an election if he could

I don't think he or Musk actually did. Trump lies all the time and a lot of the time it's without purpose other than his own narcasim but other times it's on purpose as a troll and I think his hint that Musk did something was just that, he wanted people to go off on a wild goose chase.

[popsdenver]

27. Trump and Republicans

didn't have to do much of anything with Putin's Oligarchs establishing a direct routing of money from the RUSSIA NRA to the U.S. NRA for them to distribute a TON of money to Trump and the Republican candidates down ballot in 2016.

Along with Russia/Putin's help using the internet and computers to assist the with the massive propaganda being regurgitated by Trump & Republicans, along with several other countries joining in......

Same with 2020, and definitely 2024..........In the six month prior to the 2024 election, the director of National Intel said that the "foreign" election interference had reached a tsunami level coming into the U.S. And they were taking "them" down as fast as possible, but they were cropping up at a faster rate than our Intelligence Community could take them down.

[Bluetus]

11. You left off the sarcasm tag

[stopdiggin]

13. meant ever word. and I'll keep on 'wording' - until I'm shown some evidence ....

(and no I don't mean the "suggestive of" doggerell and slop by the sad little ETA .. )

[Bluetus]

17. The evidence is abundant.

Trump basically confessed to it and so did musk. Perhaps it would not hold up in court, but this is not about court. It is about destroying our democracy. It is not helpful for people to have a blind eye to that

[stopdiggin]

18. so people keep saying, and SAYING ...

without ever (as I keep insisting) really showing up with the 'goods' ...

So .. there we have our basic and fundamental disagreement ...
Extraordinary claims requiring ... And so forth.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Bluetus]

21. When there are zero investigations, you can't expect to find "the goods"

Why are you in favor of ignoring all the claims by Trump and Musk that they had control of the electoral systems?

[stopdiggin]

25. and 20 minutes ago the argument was for 'plenty of evidence'

And I believe virtually nothing coming out of Trump's mouth - because ...
Well - I would assume that's fairly self evident. No?
Similarly - have you found Musk to be a lode-stone ... ?

[Bluetus]

28. Confessions are evidence.

Last edited Sat Jan 3, 2026, 10:06 PM - Edit history (1)

[stopdiggin]

29. and granted credence in accordance with character and circumstance.

If grandma 'confesses' that she is secretly married to a Nigerian prince that she met online ...

One would HOPE ... That you didn't start clearing out a bedroom in anticipation ...

[Bluetus]

31. There has been very credible analysis

by competent computer scientists (that is my field, by the way), that there actually was a valid vector for Musk to have done everything that was attributed to him, including having an app on his phone that showed him real time counts from ESS tabulators in precincts where they were believed to have no connection to the outside world. I would take you through that, but frankly, I believe you are way out of your depth

The bottom line is that these scenarios could easily be disproved simply by running paper ballots through tabulators known not to be compromised, and nobody ever did that anywhere, as far as I can tell.

[stopdiggin]

33. to call such 'musings' creditable analysis - gives a good illustration of why

these 'arguments' are routinely discredited and dismissed. And every practitioner of logic out there is going to immediately point to the fallacy (and disservice) of equating, 'could happen - with did happen - or probably happened'. That is not 'evidence' and that is not proof - which is why the people on the side of 'proof', keep insisting, "Show us where it did happen!" Where are your 'results'?

And, yes, despite your rather dumbfounding suggestion to the contrary (which further discredits the argument) - voting machines (and tabulators) are routinely tested (verified) - oftentimes both before and after elections - against physical and controlled standard. If the state/county/precinct where you live ISN'T doing so - ask them why. Because it most certainly is considered best practice, and standard among voting system and election officials.

[Bluetus]

34. You have no idea what you are talking about.

The allegation is that Musk was able to establish superuser control over tabulators in the field and do real-time vote flipping.

Testing the tabulators later with a fresh set of ballots would prove nothing because the software would have been reset to standby mode. It was, allegedly, Palantir's role to administer the flipping, and the scrubbing of logs to make the tampering undiscoverable. When you have established superuser control, you absolutely can clean up the evidence.

There were 88 counties that Trump flipped, only on election day, and no other candidates on the ballot saw that same shift. There were NO counties where something similar happened in Harris' favor. The alleged flipping could easily be proven or disproven simply by running the original paper ballots for a location that was suspect into a tabulator that has been refreshed with certified software and disconnected from any external connections, ESPECIALLY the Tripp-Lite UPS devices.

You are free to call this a CT. Many of us who are actually experts in various IT areas find the scenario 100% possible and quite plausible for a person with the unlimited resources of Musk, Theil, and Palentir, especially considering how all of the above profited as a result of this election rigging.
https://www.christianamato.com/blog/2025/7/16/do-the-dots-connect-what-were-not-supposed-to-ask-about-the-2024-election

[stopdiggin]

35. you're right. I am calling this conspiracy theory - and pointing (for about the thousandth time)

to the fact that you (nor no one else that has come forward) has the barest scintilla of evidence - that any of this ever took place. 'Coulda' and 'mighta' has never met the standard as real evidence. And it's kind of a sad day for science (and 'expertise'?) when anything of the sort is advanced as anything other than purest conjecture.

[Bluetus]

36. Trump and Musk both said in plain english they were doing this.

If you haven't noticed, Trump is a believer in doing crimes right out in public because there are people (I won't name any names) who can't get their minds around the idea that anybody could do something this criminal and admit to it -- and not suffer any consequences.

So keep on denying everything Trump is doing. We don't have "evidence" that Trump sold any of the classified documents he stole. We don't have "evidence" that Kushner gave MBS a list of hundreds of spies whom he immediately executed and then gave Kushner $2 billion. We don't have "evidence" that Trump has been selling pardons for millions of dollars each.

We don't have "evidence" because these crimes are not being investigated.

[stopdiggin]

37. No. Neither Trump not Musk ever said 'in plain English' that they were 'doing this'

and asserting that they did ... Once again adds discredit rather than bolstering any case.

[Bengus81]

24. The election was lost by women not voting for Harris and or setting out

She got like what...8% less of women's vote than Biden in 2020?

No rigging, just racism.

[gAI Obsession]

32. Slop!

Name.

[2naSalit]

4. I heard that too but...

I have no confirmation. It wouldn't surprise me, the timing is sus as hell if so.

[Marie Marie]

19. Yeah, my first thought also. Don't know how or even if that works but I do remember that being discussed.

[Gaugamela]

5. A Kessler Syndrome event is only a matter of time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

[ret5hd]

6. maybe he will move them to such a low orbit...

that those f'ing yahoo that shoot up in the air every July 4th and Dec 31 will start the whole collapse!

[progressoid]

15. Andy Griffith will fix this....

[KPN]

16. These nerds (Musk, Bezos, et al) really ARE morons.

They may have their hands on the controls, but what they are “controlling” is Idiocracy. They obviously are not smart enough to be concerned about unintended consequences — the Kessler Syndrome, the Fermi Paradox.
Maybe I’ll watch “Idiocracy” again tonite — it’s been a long while.

[NickB79]

30. Moving them to a lower orbit increases the odds of a collision chain reaction

Moving inwards on a sphere drastically reduces the area that the satellites can operate in safely.

[OnlinePoker]

7. They announced earlier in the week that they now have 9.2 million customers

I have a feeling that one of the other reasons for the lower altitude is to try and increase the upload/download speed to what they claimed it should be. At $70-$150 per month for connectivity, with 9.2 million customers they're bringing in around $100 million a month in revenue. It will be interesting to see their financials when they actually start their IPO.

[littlemissmartypants]

8. Will they be close enough for target practice?

[marble falls]

9. Some us think Starlink IS mostly space debris.

[KPN]

14. Why do I think this doesn't bode well? Don't

look up!

[Igel]

20. That'll put them at greater risk of atmospheric drag.

With the solar maximum last fall, apparently they're counting on the atmosphere not being heated up quite so much so it's not an increased risk.

[hunter]

23. Starlink needs to go away for a lot of reasons.

Lowering the satellites' orbits will mean they burn up quicker when the system is abandoned.

[Klarkashton]

26. Starstink how did we ever survive before this shit?

One more foist on the consumer.