By Chris Forrester Starlink has well over 8,000 satellites in orbit, but they have an orbital life of around five years. The first batch of 60 operational craft were launched in May 2019. This means that some of those early launches have now reached their ‘end of life’ targets. In the six month period from December 2024 to May 2025 SpaceX has de-orbited 472 craft, at a rate of around 2.6 craft per day. While most of the de-orbits are the original Version 1 satellites, there are also some more recent craft including Version 1.5 and even Version 2 satellites which have malfunctioned for one reason or another and have fallen to Earth. However, the greater replacement rate continues, and now includes craft capable of initial text/SMS messaging and being tested with users by T-Mobile in the US and OneNZ in New Zealand. The expansion of Starlink continues. News emerged on July 4th that SpaceX is producing more than 90,000 Starlink kits per week. Other posts by