WASHINGTON, USA, Oct. 6, 2026 - The US Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX's plan to launch and operate 15,000 Starlink Mobile satellites, optimised to work in the 2 GHz band. SpaceX had submitted the application in September 2025.

The satellites will orbit at 326 to 335 kilometres, and the first Starlink V2 Mobile satellites are scheduled to launch in 2027. The FCC also granted a waiver that lets SpaceX offer satellite wireless service without leasing spectrum from a ground-based mobile operator. SpaceX plans to combine the constellation with terrestrial infrastructure to provide coverage indoors, outdoors and in places without conventional cell signal.

SpaceX bought wireless licences held by EchoStar for $19.6 billion in late 2025 to secure spectrum rights, and says acquiring the spectrum licences still requires final FCC approval. SpaceX had launched nearly 13,000 Starlink satellites by early October, and the American Astronomical Society has raised concerns about the new approval.

Impact Insight. Satellites flying as low as about 330 km meet more drag from the thin upper atmosphere, so dead ones fall back and burn up sooner than those in higher orbits. The link to planetary defense is indirect: thousands more satellites mean more traffic to track and more bright streaks across the images that sky surveys use to find near-Earth asteroids, which is the kind of concern astronomers raise.