Live Starlink satellite tracker and map

azmth currently tracks 11,149 Starlink satellites in CelesTrak's active catalogue, as of 20 October 2026. Data from CelesTrak, refreshed every 2 hours.

See SpaceX's Starlink satellites live on a 3D globe, with positions from CelesTrak's active catalogue, including the direct-to-cell satellites tagged [DTC] that carry the Starlink Mobile phone service. Show only Starlink on the map, select any satellite for its orbital details, and follow newly launched batches that still fly as Starlink trains before they spread out. As of 14 September 2026 most Starlink broadband satellites flew at about 450 to 490 km after being lowered during 2026, and the direct-to-cell satellites at about 350 to 360 km.

Also called STARLINK, Starlink Mobile, Gen2 Starlink

As of 9 October 2026, Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet and direct-to-phone network in low Earth orbit, with more than 11,000 satellites in orbit since 19 August 2026 according to Spaceflight Now and CelesTrak's catalogue, among them the first 26 next-generation V3 satellites, which Starship carried to orbit on 28 September 2026.

TL;DR· 17 min read

Starlink is SpaceX's satellite network in low Earth orbit, providing broadband internet and, through Starlink Mobile, service straight to mobile phones. CelesTrak's active catalogue, which azmth's live Starlink map draws on, lists 11,149 Starlink satellites, while on 9 October 2026 Jonathan McDowell counted 11,137 in orbit and 11,123 working. On 14 September 2026 most broadband satellites flew at about 450 to 490 km after orbit lowering during 2026, and on 28 September Starship carried the first 26 V3 satellites to orbit. SpaceX reported 12.0 million Starlink subscribers on 30 June 2026.

11,149

in CelesTrak's active catalogue now

as of 20 October 2026

12,988

Starlink satellites launched, counted by Jonathan McDowell

as of 9 October 2026 · source

12.0 million

Starlink subscribers (service lines) reported by SpaceX

as of 30 June 2026 · source

What Starlink is

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation built and operated by SpaceX, with satellites in several low-Earth-orbit shells inclined at about 43, 53, 70 and 97 degrees. SpaceX launched two prototypes, TINTIN A and B, on 22 February 2018 and the first 60 satellites named STARLINK on 24 May 2019, and on 9 October 2026 Jonathan McDowell counted 12,988 Starlink satellites launched, 11,137 in orbit and 11,123 working. SpaceX said its Starlink satellites made up about 75% of all active manoeuvrable satellites in orbit on 31 March 2026. Besides broadband for homes, businesses and governments, a separate fleet of direct-to-cell satellites carries Starlink Mobile, which on that date reached mobile phones through about 30 mobile network operators.

Starlink satellites are named by version, and SpaceX uses a 'V' convention (V1, V2 Mini and V3) for both its broadband and its mobile satellites while describing the two constellations as distinct systems. All 60 version 0.9 satellites launched in 2019 have come down, according to Jonathan McDowell, and by 31 March 2026 most of the fleet was V2 Mini, a design launched on Falcon rockets that SpaceX says cut manufacturing cost per Gbps of downlink capacity about threefold compared with V1. McDowell's tables for 10 September 2026 put 3,190 satellites in orbit in his Gen1 group and 7,943 in his Gen2 group; the Gen1 group includes 647 V1.5 satellites flown to 43 degrees under the Gen2 licence, and the Gen2 group includes the 639 direct-to-cell satellites. SpaceX began launching the direct-to-cell satellites, which it calls V1 Mobile, in January 2024, and CelesTrak records the last of them launched on 13 June 2025, with none catalogued since.

Starlink's next-generation V3 satellites first reached orbit on 28 September 2026, on Starship's 14th flight. SpaceX designs each V3 for 1 Tbps of downlink capacity, says Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy cannot carry them, and says a single Starship launch will be able to deploy up to 60; its IPO filing expected V3 deployment on Starship to begin in the second half of 2026. Starship Flight 12 in May 2026 deployed modified V2 Starlink satellites, and on 24 July 2026 Flight 13 deployed 20 production V3 satellites on a planned suborbital path: SpaceX made contact with all 20 by radio and laser links during about 20 minutes of tests, after which they re-entered and burned up. Flight 14, flown by Ship 41 from Starbase in Texas and described by SpaceX as the first orbital Starship flight, deployed 26 V3 satellites into orbit, and SpaceX said it made contact with every one over laser links, ground stations and Starlink user terminals. After an engine on the ship shut down early during ascent, SpaceX limited the ship's time in orbit, and it splashed down in the northern Pacific about three hours after launch. SpaceX said the satellites would conduct on-orbit checkouts and raise their orbits before serving customers. As of 9 October 2026 Jonathan McDowell listed all 26 in orbit and working, 16 held at an intermediate altitude for plane drift and 10 raising their orbits, and CelesTrak's orbital elements put them at about 300 to 320 km, inclined about 30.5 degrees.

Starlink lowered most of its broadband satellites during 2026. On 1 January 2026 Michael Nicolls, a Starlink engineering executive at SpaceX, announced that all Starlink satellites orbiting at about 550 km, about 4,400 of them, would be lowered to about 480 km over the year in coordination with other operators, regulators and US Space Command, and on 9 January the FCC authorised SpaceX to move satellites from its 525, 530 and 535 km shells to 480, 485 and 475 km. Starlink's space-safety site gives end-of-2026 targets of 485 km at 43 degrees, 472.5 km at 70 degrees, 462.5 km at 97.3 degrees and 463 km at 53 degrees, plans V3 broadband satellites at 330 to 360 km, and says the lower shells cut ballistic decay time at solar minimum by more than 80%. In CelesTrak's orbital elements for 14 September 2026, 3,226 broadband satellites at 43 degrees flew at about 480 to 490 km, 4,291 at 53 degrees at about 450 to 480 km and 1,217 at 97 degrees at about 460 to 470 km. Lowering was unfinished: 477 satellites at 70 degrees were still at about 570 to 580 km, a mix of V1.5 satellites launched from 2021 to 2023 and V2 Mini satellites launched in 2024 and 2025, and smaller groups at 53 and 97 degrees remained above 500 km. Almost all the direct-to-cell satellites flew lower, at about 350 to 360 km.

Starlink satellites are launched mostly on SpaceX's Falcon 9, in batches that averaged about 26 satellites in 2026. CelesTrak's catalogue records 80 Starlink launches in 2026 up to 6 September, carrying 2,114 satellites, with launches about twice a week from June (29 launch dates between 3 June and 6 September) and none catalogued between 7 and 13 September. SpaceX said it launched about 3,100 Starlink satellites in 2025, and CelesTrak lists 3,169 launched that year. Starlink passed 11,000 satellites in orbit on 19 August 2026 (UTC), when Starlink 17-50 added 24, according to Spaceflight Now and CelesTrak's catalogue, and the 80th Starlink mission of 2026, Starlink 15-24, launched 27 satellites from Vandenberg in California on 6 September 2026 on a Falcon 9 booster making its 19th flight. Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX's vice president for launch, said in September 2026 that Starlink missions from Florida will in future fly on Starship; the last Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida in CelesTrak's catalogue was on 25 August 2026, and of the five Starlink launches catalogued after it up to 9 October 2026, four, on 26 August and 2, 6 and 20 September, left from Vandenberg and one, Starship Flight 14 on 28 September, left from Starbase in Texas.

Starlink satellites are replaced often: SpaceX estimates their useful lives at three to five years and says it often deorbits them earlier. CelesTrak's catalogue records 90 Starlink satellites re-entering in 2023, 334 in 2024, 671 in 2025 (about 1.8 a day) and 380 in 2026 up to 13 September (about 1.5 a day). Jonathan McDowell said in October 2025 that one to two were coming down each day, and projected about five re-entries a day once about 30,000 satellites fly in low-Earth-orbit constellations on a five-year replacement cycle. SpaceX said in its IPO filing that its autonomous collision-avoidance system had never had a failure that lost a satellite and that its satellites made more than 1,000 automated avoidance manoeuvres a day in 2025; the FCC requires it to report conjunction events every six months, and Space.com reported that SpaceX's report for December 2025 to May 2026 counted 207,152 manoeuvres, a figure azmth could not check against the filing itself. On 17 December 2025 satellite 35956 lost communications at 418 km after an anomaly that vented its propulsion tank and released a small number of trackable objects, according to Starlink, and CelesTrak records STARLINK-35956 re-entering on 17 January 2026.

Astronomers have measured the brightness of Starlink satellites, which can interfere with professional research. Measurements published in May 2024 suggest SpaceX applies brightness mitigation to V2 Mini satellites once they climb above about 357 km: below that height they averaged magnitude 2.68 and above it 6.46, a reduction in brightness the authors calculated as 93% once distance is allowed for. Mallama and Cole reported in MNRAS Letters in September 2025 that nearly all the constellation spacecraft they studied were brighter than magnitude 7, the limit for interference with professional research set out by the International Astronomical Union's CPS. The FCC's 2022 Gen2 order recorded that the US National Science Foundation encouraged mitigations including dimming satellites to 7th magnitude or fainter.

Starlink operates under US Federal Communications Commission authorisations for two systems, Gen1 and Gen2. The FCC authorised the Gen1 system of 4,425 satellites in an order released on 29 March 2018, and a modification released on 27 April 2021 set it at 4,408, moving 2,814 of them from 1,100 to 1,300 km down to 540 to 570 km. On 1 December 2022 it granted 7,500 of the 29,988 Gen2 satellites SpaceX had requested, at 525, 530 and 535 km and inclinations of 53, 43 and 33 degrees, with half to be deployed by 1 December 2028 and the rest by 1 December 2031. On 9 January 2026 the FCC's Space Bureau authorised a second tranche of 7,500, bringing Gen2 to 15,000, deferred the remaining 14,988 including every satellite proposed above 600 km, added shells between 340 and 485 km, and allowed Supplemental Coverage from Space in the United States and direct-to-cell service outside it. On 23 April 2026 the Bureau dismissed with prejudice SpaceX's requests to use the 1.6 and 2.4 GHz Big LEO bands, including the part of its separate 15,000-satellite direct-to-cell application that sought them outside the United States; the rest of that application was then still pending. On 6 October 2026 the Space Bureau and the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau granted that application in part (DA 26-1078), authorising the SpaceX D2D Constellation, a direct-to-device system of 15,000 satellites in shells between 326 and 335 km, for Supplemental Coverage from Space and mobile satellite service in the United States and direct-to-cell service outside it, with half to be launched, placed in their assigned orbits and operating by 7 October 2032 and the rest by 7 October 2035. The order deferred action on some of the requested bands, and SpaceX's authority to operate in the bands it is buying from EchoStar depends on those licences passing to SpaceX. Jonathan McDowell lists Gen2 V2 Mini satellites in 70- and 97-degree shells, which the 2022 order did not include, and azmth did not find the order that first authorised them. A separate SpaceX application of 30 January 2026 for up to one million satellites, called the SpaceX Orbital Data Center system, was accepted for filing on 4 February 2026, and azmth found no grant.

Starlink's next-generation phone service in the United States depends on spectrum SpaceX agreed to buy from EchoStar. On 7 September 2025 SpaceX agreed to buy EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block licences, 50 MHz of spectrum, for about $17 billion, part of which pays off EchoStar debt, with up to $8.5 billion paid in SpaceX stock, and SpaceX also funds about $2 billion of EchoStar's interest payments until closing; on 5 November 2025 the deal added up to 15 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum for $2.6 billion in stock, raising the total to about $20 billion. The FCC approved the transactions on 12 May 2026, and on 22 May EchoStar moved the licences into an interim trust, where they stay until the transfer to SpaceX, targeted for about 30 November 2027. SpaceX says US service on its next-generation mobile network also needs its V2 Mobile satellites in orbit, which it expects to begin launching on Starship in 2027, and its IPO filing noted that, at the time, no commercially available mobile device supported the satellite versions of these bands for 5G-like service.

Starshield is SpaceX's separate satellite network for US government and national security customers, which SpaceX says draws on its commercial Starlink engineering and operations. On 10 September 2026 Jonathan McDowell counted 245 Starshield satellites launched and 241 in orbit and working, including 190 in clusters A1 to A9 for the National Reconnaissance Office and 10 launched in pairs, four of those pairs alongside Starlink batches. CelesTrak catalogues Starshield-related satellites under USA names: the active catalogue azmth uses holds none of the National Reconnaissance Office cluster satellites, but it does include USA 485 and USA 486, launched with a Starlink batch on 21 January 2025, which McDowell counts as Starshield. In the second quarter of 2026 SpaceX reported more than $6 billion in multi-year US government awards for Starshield, mainly two Space Force contracts for communications and sensing constellations in low Earth orbit.

SpaceX's securities filings, from its IPO registration statement onwards, are the main primary source for Starlink figures; its shares were priced at $135 and began trading on Nasdaq as SPCX on 12 June 2026. SpaceX's report for the second quarter of 2026 gave Connectivity (Starlink) revenue of $4.291 billion, up 66% on a year earlier, of which $2.485 billion was consumer and $1.806 billion enterprise and government, and average revenue per user of $66 a month, down from $85 a year earlier as subscribers doubled. In the first half of 2026 SpaceX made 78 launches and put 1,041 tonnes into orbit, mainly for Connectivity.

How to find them on the globe

CelesTrak names each Starlink satellite STARLINK- followed by a SpaceX-assigned number with no leading zeros (the lowest in the active catalogue on 14 September 2026 was STARLINK-1008), and adds ' [DTC]' after the number for the direct-to-cell satellites that carry Starlink Mobile, 639 of the names that day. The numbers follow neither launch order nor satellite version, so a name cannot tell a V1.5 from a V2 Mini, and satellites that Jonathan McDowell counts as Starshield, SpaceX's network for the US government, carry USA names, such as USA 485 and USA 486, so a search for STARLINK leaves them out.

Coverage and service

Starlink had 12.0 million subscribers on 30 June 2026 by SpaceX's count, double the figure a year earlier, and SpaceX's report for that quarter said the service reached 167 countries, territories and other markets. SpaceX counts a subscriber as a service line on a Starlink.com account held without a negotiated agreement with its sales team, so customers on negotiated enterprise and government contracts fall outside the figure, and SpaceX says the number of lines is distinct from the number of devices or people. On 31 March 2026 SpaceX gave a median peak-hour download speed of 225 Mbps for residential users and a median latency of about 25 ms, and said the constellation carried more than 23,000 inter-satellite lasers that route traffic through a mesh network in space. On the same date Starlink Mobile, the direct-to-phone service, used about 650 V1 Mobile satellites to deliver data, over-the-top voice and messaging to about 7.4 million monthly unique devices in about 30 countries, through about 30 mobile network operators on six continents, with approvals for commercial first-generation service in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and several other countries. SoftBank, NTT Docomo and Spark NZ launched Starlink Mobile partnerships with SpaceX in the second quarter of 2026. In the United States, service on the next-generation V2 Mobile satellites waits on those satellites, which SpaceX expects to begin launching on Starship in 2027, on the EchoStar spectrum transfer targeted for 30 November 2027, and on US regulatory authorisations that SpaceX's IPO filing expected in the second or third quarter of 2026, which its second-quarter report, filed on 4 August 2026, did not report as granted. On 6 October 2026 the FCC authorised SpaceX's separate 15,000-satellite direct-to-device system to provide Supplemental Coverage from Space and mobile satellite service in the United States, with operation in the EchoStar bands conditioned on completion of that transfer.

What we know

Operator: SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) as of 4 August 2026 · sec.gov
Satellites launched: 12,988 by Jonathan McDowell's count, including the 20 V3 satellites launched on a planned suborbital path in July 2026 and the 26 V3 satellites Starship carried to orbit on 28 September 2026 as of 9 October 2026 · planet4589.org
In orbit and working: 11,137 in orbit and 11,123 working by Jonathan McDowell's count, 9,726 of them in their operational orbits as of 9 October 2026 · planet4589.org
CelesTrak catalogue status: 11,130 STARLINK payloads in orbit as of 14 September 2026: 10,794 flagged operational, 334 partially operational and 2 non-operational; 1,733 more have re-entered as of 14 September 2026 · celestrak.org
SpaceX's satellite figure: Over 10,200 broadband and mobile satellites powering Starlink, as stated in SpaceX's report for the quarter to 30 June 2026 as of 4 August 2026 (filing date) · sec.gov
Direct-to-cell satellites: 639 in orbit, launched between 3 January 2024 and 13 June 2025, with none catalogued as launched since as of 14 September 2026 · celestrak.org
Orbits: Shells inclined about 43, 53, 70 and 97 degrees; as of 14 September 2026 most broadband satellites at about 450 to 490 km, 477 at 70 degrees still near 570 to 580 km, and direct-to-cell satellites at about 350 to 360 km as of 14 September 2026 · celestrak.org
Gen2 authorisation (FCC): 15,000 satellites authorised by the FCC, with the remaining 14,988 requested deferred as of 9 January 2026 · docs.fcc.gov
Direct-to-device system authorisation (FCC): 15,000 satellites in shells at 326 to 335 km, granted in part on 6 October 2026, with half due in orbit and operating by 7 October 2032 and the rest by 7 October 2035 as of 6 October 2026 · docs.fcc.gov
Gen1 authorisation (FCC): 4,408 satellites, as modified by the FCC in April 2021 as of 27 April 2021 · docs.fcc.gov
Subscribers: 12.0 million Starlink Subscribers (service lines), up from 6.0 million a year earlier as of 30 June 2026 · sec.gov
Markets served: 167 countries, territories and other markets, per SpaceX's second-quarter 2026 report as of 4 August 2026 (filing date) · sec.gov
Residential performance: Median download speed of 225 Mbps at peak hours and median latency of about 25 ms, per SpaceX as of 31 March 2026 · sec.gov
Inter-satellite lasers: More than 23,000, forming a mesh network in space as of 31 March 2026 · sec.gov
Satellite useful life: Three to five years, by SpaceX's estimate as of 31 March 2026 · sec.gov
V3 satellites: Designed for 1 Tbps of downlink capacity each and too large for Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy, so they are to launch on Starship, up to 60 at a time (SpaceX design targets) as of 31 March 2026 · sec.gov
V3 satellites in orbit: 26, deployed by Starship Flight 14 on 28 September 2026; all 26 in orbit and working by Jonathan McDowell's count, 16 held at an intermediate altitude for plane drift and 10 raising their orbits as of 9 October 2026 · planet4589.org
Re-entries: 671 Starlink payloads re-entered in 2025 and 380 in 2026 up to 13 September as of 14 September 2026 · celestrak.org
Starshield (separate network): 245 launched and 241 in orbit and working by Jonathan McDowell's count as of 10 September 2026 · planet4589.org
Connectivity revenue: $4.291 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 66% year on year, with average revenue per user of $66 a month as of 30 June 2026 · sec.gov

Timeline

22 February 2018
SpaceX's two Starlink prototypes, TINTIN A and TINTIN B, launch. celestrak.org
29 March 2018
SpaceX's Gen1 system of 4,425 satellites for Ku- and Ka-band service is authorised by the FCC in an order released this day. docs.fcc.gov
24 May 2019
The first 60 satellites named STARLINK, version 0.9, launch. All 60 have since come down, according to Jonathan McDowell. planet4589.org
27 April 2021
Gen1 is set at 4,408 satellites by an FCC modification that moves 2,814 of them down to 540 to 570 km. docs.fcc.gov
1 December 2022
The FCC grants 7,500 of the 29,988 Gen2 satellites SpaceX requested, at 525, 530 and 535 km. docs.fcc.gov
3 January 2024
The first direct-to-cell satellites, catalogued with the tag [DTC], launch. celestrak.org
13 June 2025
The most recent direct-to-cell satellites in CelesTrak's catalogue launch; none has been catalogued since. celestrak.org
7 September 2025
SpaceX agrees to buy EchoStar's AWS-4 and H-block spectrum licences for about $17 billion. sec.gov
5 November 2025
The EchoStar deal is amended to add up to 15 MHz of AWS-3 spectrum for $2.6 billion in SpaceX stock, raising the total to about $20 billion. sec.gov
17 December 2025
Starlink satellite 35956 loses communications at 418 km after an anomaly that vents its propulsion tank and releases a small number of trackable objects. space.com
1 January 2026
Michael Nicolls announces that about 4,400 Starlink satellites at about 550 km will be lowered to about 480 km during 2026. x.com
9 January 2026
The FCC authorises a second tranche of 7,500 Gen2 satellites, bringing Gen2 to 15,000, and allows orbit lowering and direct-to-cell service outside the United States. docs.fcc.gov
30 January 2026
SpaceX files a separate FCC application for up to one million satellites for its Orbital Data Center system. docs.fcc.gov
31 March 2026
SpaceX's IPO filing later reports, as of this date, about 9,600 Starlink broadband and mobile satellites, about 75% of all active manoeuvrable satellites in orbit, and about 10.3 million subscribers. sec.gov
23 April 2026
The FCC Space Bureau dismisses with prejudice SpaceX's requests to use the Big LEO bands. docs.fcc.gov
May 2026
Starship Flight 12, the first suborbital flight of Starship V3, deploys modified V2 Starlink satellites. sec.gov
12 May 2026
The FCC approves the SpaceX and EchoStar spectrum transactions. sec.gov
22 May 2026
EchoStar moves the AWS-4, H-block and AWS-3 licences into an interim trust until the transfer to SpaceX, targeted for 30 November 2027. sec.gov
12 June 2026
SpaceX shares begin trading on Nasdaq as SPCX after pricing at $135. techcrunch.com
30 June 2026
SpaceX reports 12.0 million Starlink subscribers at the end of the quarter, double the figure a year earlier. sec.gov
24 July 2026
Starship Flight 13 deploys 20 production V3 satellites on a planned suborbital path; after about 20 minutes of tests they re-enter and burn up. universetoday.com
19 August 2026
Starlink 17-50 launches 24 satellites from Vandenberg (18 August local time), taking Starlink past 11,000 satellites in orbit, according to Spaceflight Now. spaceflightnow.com
25 August 2026
SpaceX makes its most recent Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida in CelesTrak's catalogue up to 9 October 2026; the Falcon 9 Starlink launches after it leave from Vandenberg. celestrak.org
6 September 2026
Starlink 15-24, the 80th Starlink mission of 2026, launches 27 satellites from Vandenberg. celestrak.org
28 September 2026
Starship Flight 14, which SpaceX called the first orbital Starship flight, deploys 26 V3 satellites, the first V3 satellites to reach orbit, and SpaceX makes contact with all of them. spacex.com
6 October 2026
The FCC grants in part SpaceX's separate application for a 15,000-satellite direct-to-device system, with half of the satellites due in orbit by 7 October 2032. docs.fcc.gov

Commonly got wrong

(1) Starlink satellite totals differ because sources count different things. SpaceX's report for the quarter to 30 June 2026 said over 10,200 satellites powered the service; Jonathan McDowell counted 11,137 in orbit, 11,123 working and 9,726 in their operational orbits on 9 October 2026; and CelesTrak's satellite catalogue listed 11,130 STARLINK payloads in orbit on 14 September 2026, 334 of them flagged partially operational. The active catalogue behind azmth's live count also includes satellites still raising their orbits or being deorbited. Launch totals differ as well: on 9 October 2026 McDowell's statistics page gave 12,988 and his constellation list 13,048 (the extra 60 appear to be 58 V3 mass simulators and 2 test satellites), while CelesTrak held 12,916 payload records, partly because it does not catalogue the 20 V3 satellites that flew a suborbital path on 24 July 2026 and never reached orbit.
(2) Starlink's altitude is often still given as about 550 km. Space.com's guide to seeing Starlink trains gives 550 km as the operational altitude, and a Space.com report in July 2026 gave 480 to 550 km, but CelesTrak's orbital elements as of 14 September 2026 put most broadband satellites at about 450 to 490 km, 477 satellites at 70 degrees still at about 570 to 580 km, and the direct-to-cell satellites at about 350 to 360 km, after the orbit lowering that Michael Nicolls announced on 1 January 2026.
(3) Starlink names in CelesTrak's catalogue do not reveal a satellite's generation, and sources group generations differently. The STARLINK numbers are assigned by SpaceX and follow neither launch order nor version, and only the direct-to-cell satellites carry a tag, [DTC]. Jonathan McDowell's Gen1 group includes 647 V1.5 satellites in orbit that were flown to 43 degrees under the Gen2 licence, and his Gen2 total of 7,943 in orbit on 10 September 2026 already includes the 639 direct-to-cell satellites, so adding the direct-to-cell fleet on top counts it twice. Starshield satellites are catalogued under USA names, such as USA 485 and USA 486, which McDowell counts as Starshield, so counts of STARLINK names leave them out.
(4) Starlink customer figures measure different things. SpaceX's securities filings count Starlink Subscribers as service lines on Starlink.com accounts without a negotiated sales agreement, 10.3 million on 31 March 2026 and 12.0 million on 30 June 2026, which leaves out negotiated enterprise and government customers. For Starlink Mobile, SpaceX's IPO filing gave about 7.4 million monthly unique devices on 31 March 2026, Light Reading reported SpaceX citing 10 million monthly active users at MWC earlier that March, and a post by Sawyer Merritt relaying an August 2026 SpaceX all-hands meeting gave over 13 million consumer subscribers and 22 million monthly Starlink Mobile users, figures azmth could not confirm from SpaceX. The market counts, 164 on 31 March 2026 and 167 in the second-quarter report, include territories and other markets as well as countries.

Sources

Checked on 14 September 2026. Where official statements and independent tracking disagree, both are given. The live count above comes from the catalogue, not from this research.

Frequently asked

How many Starlink satellites are there?

CelesTrak's active catalogue, the data behind azmth's live Starlink map, lists 11,149 Starlink satellites, a figure that rises with each launch and falls as old satellites re-enter. Other totals count different things: on 9 October 2026 Jonathan McDowell counted 12,988 Starlink satellites launched, 11,137 in orbit and 11,123 working, and SpaceX's report for the quarter to 30 June 2026 said over 10,200 satellites powered the service. Launched, in orbit and working are three different totals, and azmth's Starlink count page explains why they differ.

Where can I see a live Starlink satellite map?

azmth's live Starlink map shows Starlink satellites on a 3D globe, with positions calculated from CelesTrak orbital data that azmth refreshes every 2 hours. Opening the tracker from this page shows only Starlink satellites, including the direct-to-cell satellites whose names end in [DTC], and any satellite can be selected for its orbital details. Newly launched Starlink satellites appear on the map once CelesTrak adds them to its active catalogue.

What is a Starlink train?

A Starlink train is a line of newly launched Starlink satellites travelling close together, seen by reflected sunlight and typically visible shortly after sunset or just before sunrise. As the satellites raise their orbits they spread apart and grow fainter, and the line breaks up into separate points of light. Measurements published in 2024 found V2 Mini satellites far brighter while still below about 357 km, where SpaceX appears not to apply its brightness mitigation. azmth's Starlink train tracker follows batches that are still flying in a line.

Can I see Starlink satellites with the naked eye?

Yes. Starlink satellites are easiest to see with the naked eye soon after a launch, when a new batch still flies as a Starlink train, typically shortly after sunset or just before sunrise. Measurements published in May 2024 found V2 Mini satellites averaging magnitude 2.68 while below about 357 km and 6.46 above that height, where SpaceX appears to switch on brightness mitigation, so Starlink satellites in their working orbits are much fainter than a new train. A 2025 study in MNRAS Letters still found nearly all the constellation spacecraft it studied brighter than magnitude 7, the limit recommended to protect professional astronomy.

How high are Starlink satellites?

As of 14 September 2026 most Starlink broadband satellites flew at about 450 to 490 km, after SpaceX lowered satellites from about 550 km during 2026, and the direct-to-cell satellites flew at about 350 to 360 km, according to CelesTrak's orbital elements. The main exception was a group of 477 satellites in the 70-degree shell still at about 570 to 580 km. Starlink's space-safety site gives end-of-2026 targets of 462.5 to 485 km for broadband satellites and 330 to 360 km for V3 satellites; the first 26 V3 satellites, launched on 28 September 2026, flew at about 300 to 320 km on 9 October 2026 in CelesTrak's orbital elements, and SpaceX said they would raise their orbits before serving customers.

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