SpaceX has developed a new Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system called Stargaze. It uses data collected from nearly 30,000 star trackers distributed across the Starlink satellite constellation. Compared to conventional ground-based systems, this system increases detection capability by several orders of magnitude.
Stargaze significantly improves the safety and sustainability of satellite operations in low Earth orbit (LEO), which is becoming more crowded every year. In the coming weeks, its screening data will be made available to the broader satellite operator community free of charge.
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Space Debrees in Earth Orbit
The unpredictability of space debris has long posed a significant challenge to space safety. Currently, more than 11,000 satellites are in Earth’s orbit, but only a fraction of them are operational. The rest are inactive or defunct satellites.
In addition to satellites, Earth’s orbit contains tens of thousands of other tracked objects, including spent rocket stages and debris generated by collisions and fragmentation events.
Indeed, over the past few decades, there have been multiple accidental collisions producing tens of thousands of trackable debris objects and millions of smaller fragments that are too small to monitor but still capable of causing catastrophic damage due to their high orbital velocities.
Historical data show that most objects currently tracked in Earth orbit are not operational satellites, but debris and spent rocket stages accumulated over decades of space activity.
Due to the large number of debris and their high relative speeds, addressing this problem has become extremely complex and requires advanced, expensive engineering solutions for collision avoidance.
Unexpectedly, SpaceX has now made a significant step forward in this area. On January 30, SpaceX unveiled a new Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system called Stargaze.
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Stargaze
The Starlink constellation consists of over 7,000 active satellites that provide internet connectivity around the globe.
Each satellite is equipped with multiple Star Trackers, among other instruments. Star trackers are custom-built navigation sensors that detect star patterns to determine the satellite’s location, altitude, and orientation in space.
Satellites scan star patterns to determine their orientation and also observe nearby objects, such as other satellites and debris.
This data is transmitted to the ground where it is processed to generate accurate orbit estimates and near real-time predictions of the position and velocity of all detected objects.
These predictions are integrated into a space traffic management platform that identifies potential close approaches between space objects and generates Conjunction Data Messages (CDMs).
Conventional methods mostly rely on ground-based radar and optical systems and observe orbital objects only a limited number of times per day. This leads to significant uncertainties in orbital predictions and is further affected by rapidly changing space weather conditions.
With nearly 30,000 star trackers that make continuous observations of nearby objects, Stargaze can detect approximately 30 million transits daily.
This increase in observations by several orders of magnitude has the potential to revolutionize the space safety. For this reason, SpaceX will make Stargaze conjunction data available to all operators free of charge via its space-traffic management platform.
The platform is already in a closed beta phase with over a dozen participating satellite operators and has already prevented a conjunction between a Starlink satellite and a third-party satellite in late 2025.
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