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I think they have limited fuel. According to the site, at the end of life, the satellites de-orbit. Maybe they will be recovered and recycled, too? Either way,

I think they have limited fuel. According to the site, at the end of life, the satellites de-orbit. Maybe they will be recovered and recycled, too? Either way, the Starlink grid needs to be replenished with new satellites from time to time.

nordsieck 7y ago
> the satellites de-orbit. Maybe they will be recovered and recycled, too? They definitely de-orbit. Half of the reason their orbit is so low is to ensure that they de-orbit quickly once they are out of fuel (the other half is latency).
dsl 7y ago
> the satellites de-orbit. Maybe they will be recovered and recycled, too? Deorbit is a fancy word for burn up in the atmosphere. They are within earths gravitational pull, so if they have a hard failure or run out of fuel to the point they can't "push back" they get vaporized on reentry. It's a clever fail safe.
- Tuna-Fish 7y ago
  > They are within earths gravitational pull Every satellite going around earth is "within earth's gravitational pull". The starlink satellites are so low that they are inside the rarefied upper layers of the atmosphere, meaning they have low but constant drag pulling on them. When they stop thrusting, they will eventually fall out of the sky.
- varjag 7y ago
  LEO satellites deorbit due to friction with residual atmosphere, not because of gravitational pull. Orbiting already means you are in an equilibrium with gravity.
s_y_n_t_a_x 7y ago
Future versions will burn up in the atmosphere, as required by the FCC as SpaceX couldn't guarantee the satellites could be contained to sea landings.