Starlink urged satellite operators to share orbital data proactively on October 6, 2026, and adopt SpaceX and Starlink’s safety practices. The request comes as SpaceX pursues a proposed orbital data-center system called Starmind; its application seeks authority for up to one million satellites, not an operating constellation.
Starlink calls for orbital data sharing
Ephemeris data describes a satellite’s position and movement along its orbit. Sharing it can help operators assess when spacecraft may pass close to one another. Starlink’s October 6 request asked operators to share that data proactively and adopt SpaceX and Starlink’s safety practices.
The reported Starmind cluster design
A description attributed to SpaceX vice president Michael Nicolls put proposed Starmind clusters at about 10 satellites, with roughly 10 terabits of bandwidth between them. Nicolls was reported as describing tight formations as a way to combine enough computing capacity to run AI models efficiently.
What SpaceX asked the FCC to approve
Space Exploration Holdings, LLC filed its application on January 30, 2026, seeking authority for a non-geostationary satellite system of up to one million satellites. On February 4, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission’s Space Bureau accepted the application for filing and sought public comment. That procedural step did not authorize the system to launch and operate.
The application proposes orbital altitudes from 500 to 2,000 kilometers, with 30-degree and sun-synchronous inclinations. It also describes orbital shells spanning up to 50 kilometers and primarily optical links between satellites. Those links could connect satellites within the proposed system and to SpaceX’s first- and second-generation Starlink systems.
What Starlink’s safety platform offers
Starlink says its free platform supports ephemeris sharing and conjunction screening: checking orbital data for predicted close approaches. It says screening results are returned within a minute. The platform also provides access to Stargaze data from 30,000 optical sensors; Starlink says those sensors track 50% of objects with perigees below 600 kilometers.
SpaceX’s reported collision-risk figures
Figures attributed to SpaceX put the number of unique maneuvering third-party satellites posing collision risks to Starlink at about 650 in 2026. About half of those satellites shared data, according to the same figures.
The figures also put additional close-approach risks at roughly 164,000 over a six-month period, when approaches occurred within four hours of an unannounced maneuver.
