# Spaceweather.com starts daily satellite-drag index from orbital data

_Published Wednesday, September 23, 2026 at 10:09 PM EDT · Science, Infrastructure · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

Spaceweather.com says it has begun publishing a daily measure of atmospheric drag derived from public tracking data for a fixed sample of 1,000 Starlink satellites. The index estimates how far a typical satellite at 480 kilometers would descend in a day without thrust, giving satellite operators a running indication of changing conditions in low Earth orbit.

The site compares each satellite's drag term with its own quiet-period baseline, then takes the sample's median. It checks the result against Planet Labs satellites that descend without thrusters and other constellations. Tracking data are typically a day old, and the index measures relative density rather than absolute atmospheric density.

## Sources

- [spaceweather.com](https://www.spaceweather.com/starlink/starlink_drag_explainer.html)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/FFBB_pdD0A2dyK5v4Bs4Yk
Published: 2026-09-24T02:09:29.207Z
Story chronology: 2026-09-23T23:10:22.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-09-24T03:36:47.715Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)