Bennett, M. and Cudney, Z. (2026). Holding up the skies: Is Starlink occuping low Earth orbit? Territory, Politics, Governance.

https://doi.org/10.1080/21622671.2025.2594491

Starlink is occupying low Earth orbit (LEO) with thousands of small satellites, which provide global high-speed internet. We calculate that the privately owned megaconstellation, which we contend forms a planetary infrastructure, accounts for 52% of all mass in LEO and 75% of all mass launched into this strategic orbit between 2019, when Starlink’s operations began, and early 2023. With these statistics as the basis for a quantitative critical political geography, we conceptualise orbital occupation and differentiate it from terrestrial occupation. Orbital occupation is kinetic rather than fixed in place, volumetric rather than superficial, exclusionary, meaning first occupants accrue advantages at the expense of latecomers, and reliant on advanced engineering. Orbital space is also a finite resource increasingly occupied by commercial actors, which perceive opportunities for profit, rather than by states alone. While Starlink’s activities are authorised by the US government, when combined with parent company SpaceX, which launches the satellites into space, the two companies can access and occupy orbital space in a way that no state, not even the US, can match. Given the two companies’ combined might, which is amplified by Elon Musk’s political influence, and weak national and international regulation of LEO, dislodging Starlink’s dominance will prove difficult.