A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasts off carrying Starlink satellites into orbit. Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images SpaceX is moving over 4,000 Starlink satellites to a lower orbit. An exec at Elon Musk's rocket company said it would help prevent collisions with rival satellites. SpaceX said last month a Starlink satellite had a near miss after nine Chinese satellites came "dangerously close." SpaceX is adjusting the orbits of thousands of Starlink satellites weeks after a near-miss with several Chinese satellites. Michael Nicholls, VP of Starlink engineering at Elon Musk's rocket company, said on Thursday that SpaceX would move around 4,400 Starlink satellites to a lower orbit over the course of 2026. Nicholls wrote in a post on X that the move would reduce the amount of time it takes for defunct satellites to burn up in Earth's atmosphere and reduce the "likelihood of collision" with other satellites and space debris. SpaceX founder Musk weighed in on the move, writing on X that it would also allow Starlink, which uses a constellation of around 9,000 satellites to provide wireless internet in over 150 countries, to serve a "higher density" of customers. Earth's orbit has become increasingly crowded since the beginning of the space age, and it's likely to get even busier as satellite constellations such as Starlink and Amazon's Leo grow. The buildup has sparked concerns about the risks of satellite collisions, which could add to the huge amount of debris in orbit. The European Space Agency estimates there are around 1.2 million bits of space debris between about 0.4 inches and 4 inches in orbit, all of which are circling the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and have the potential to cause damage to satellites and crewed space launches. In December, SpaceX said that one Starlink satellite had a near miss after nine Chinese satellites came within 650 feet, with Nicholls saying in a post on X that the approach was "dangerously close." The rocket company also reported that one of its Starlink satellites exploded last month, releasing a small number of "trackable low relative velocity objects" before burning up in orbit. Nicholls wrote on X that the Starlink satellites will be lowered from about 342 miles to about 298 miles above Earth's surface, adding that the amount of space debris and planned satellite constellations was "significantly lower" below 311 miles. "These actions will further improve the safety of the constellation, particularly with difficult to control risks such as uncoordinated maneuvers and launches by other satellite operators," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider