Image: SpaceX
Starlink has unveiled a new tool aimed at making Earth’s increasingly crowded orbits safer for everyone. Called Stargaze, the system is a Space Situational Awareness (SSA) platform designed to track satellites and predict potential close approaches, helping operators avoid collisions before they happen.
In a post shared by Starlink on X, the company said Stargaze will make conjunction data available to all satellite operators free of charge. The idea is simple but ambitious: by openly sharing ephemeris data and collision warnings, SpaceX hopes to encourage industry-wide cooperation and raise the overall safety bar for satellite operations. As the company put it, providing this service at no cost is meant to motivate others “to take similar steps towards ephemeris sharing and safe flight.”
The move comes at a critical time. According to recent FCC reports, Starlink satellites performed roughly 300,000 collision-avoidance maneuvers in 2025 alone, underscoring just how congested low-Earth orbit has become. With more than 9,000 Starlink satellites currently in orbit — and the constellation expected to cross 10,000 satellites in the coming weeks — the challenge of safely managing space traffic is only growing.
SpaceX is also scaling aggressively. The company recently received FCC approval to launch up to 15,000 additional satellites to expand cellular connectivity from space, and it has outlined plans to roll out its second-generation Starlink Direct to Cell system in 2027. At the same time, SpaceX has announced it will begin lowering thousands of Starlink satellites to a lower operational altitude in 2026, a move designed to reduce debris risk and shorten deorbit timelines if a satellite fails.
Safety appears to have become an even sharper focus for SpaceX following a notable anomaly late last year, when a Starlink satellite malfunctioned and decayed from orbit, burning up on descent. While incidents like this are rare, they highlight the importance of robust tracking and coordination as satellite numbers surge.
By opening up Stargaze to the broader industry, Starlink is positioning itself not just as the largest satellite operator in the world, but as a central player in managing orbital safety. As space gets more crowded, tools like this may quickly go from “nice to have” to absolutely essential.
