US EditionLive Science Today: Super El Niño Looms and Starlink Hits 10,000 Satellites in Orbit
SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets enabled rapid deployment, with Starlink now comprising about two thirds of all satellites in orbit and serving over 10 million users worldwide.
- On Tuesday, Mar 17, SpaceX surpassed 10,000 active Starlink satellites in orbit following two successful launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
- Vertical integration of launch, satellites, and gateways enabled SpaceX to reach this scale by averaging a launch every 2.3 days in 2026, with over 10,000 units now operating simultaneously.
- Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell confirmed the five-figure operational milestone; the system performed about 300,000 collision avoidance maneuvers in 2025 alone to maintain orbital safety.
- Beyond internet access for 10 million users across 160 countries, SpaceX and CEO Elon Musk wield significant geopolitical power; astronomers warn satellite interference increasingly obstructs celestial observations.
- With 1.7 million satellites currently proposed globally, experts fear future orbital congestion could trigger debris-generating collisions as mega-constellations like Qianfan and Guowang increase traffic in Earth's orbit.
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SpaceX launches 10,000th active Starlink satellite in low Earth orbit
Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more! You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Almost seven years after starting to build out its broadband constellation in low Earth orbit, SpaceX now has more…
The first satellite launch took place almost seven years ago.
SpaceX crosses 10,000-satellite threshold, owning two-thirds of all active satellites in orbit
SpaceX hit a landmark milestone in the early hours of Tuesday morning, pushing its Starlink internet constellation past 10,000 simultaneously active satellites, a figure that would have seemed fantastical just a decade ago.
The Starlink company, owned by the US billionaire Elon Musk, has never had so many satellites in space. Nearly 10,000, it is 15 times more than its European competitor Eutelsat La
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