Starlink Calls Undisclosed Maneuvers Biggest Risk for 11,000 Satellites

Starlink posted a thread on Tuesday morning arguing that undisclosed satellite maneuvers by other operators are the biggest collision risk in low Earth orbit, and it’s pushing the industry to share ephemeris data, predicted trajectories and planned maneuvers in the open.

According to the thread, Starlink runs more than 11,000 satellites delivering broadband to millions worldwide, using tight station-keeping tolerances and automation to keep the constellation operating safely. The company said it publishes high-accuracy ephemeris for its whole fleet every hour, upcoming maneuvers included, and has opened the system so all operators can view it and contribute their own satellite data for free through space-safety.com.

An ephemeris is basically a precise table of where a satellite is now and where it’s headed, built from tracking data and orbital models. Low Earth orbit is crowded with fast-moving objects, so knowing a satellite’s predicted path, engine burns included, gives everyone else time to steer clear. Starlink’s point is that sharing these flight plans openly turns near-misses into avoidable events.

Starlink’s sharpest point came in one post: “However, we cannot mitigate risk when another operator maneuvers without sharing a predicted trajectory that includes the burn. This is the biggest risk in LEO.” Debris is a different story, with tens of thousands of manmade fragments circling the planet, though Starlink said that risk can be managed as long as the objects are tracked.

The most-shared post, viewed more than 2.6 million times, said operating safely in space means knowing where satellites and objects are and where they’ll be in the future, and it called on every operator to share ephemeris data along with predicted trajectories and planned maneuvers. Read the full post here.

Starlink also argued that constant communication is what makes autonomy safe, since early contact lets it take responsibility for maneuvering, publish ephemeris faster than ground radar can catalog a new object, and keep commanding a satellite through deorbit if needed. The thread wrapped with one more call for every operator to share ephemeris data proactively, capping a packed week in which the company is deploying larger V3 satellites from Starship, planning a million-satellite AI constellation and preparing for Crew-12’s return from the International Space Station. Starlink has released collision-avoidance tooling publicly before, including a free tool earlier this year. Its message is that the next leap in space safety depends less on hardware than on everyone publishing satellite trajectories.