SpaceX used to launch them at 360km but if a sat fails it takes years for it to naturally decay and reenter. SpaceX is doing the right thing here by launching them into a purposely low elliptical orbit they ensure that if a sat goes black it comes down in days not years. The reason they lost these was not the extra drag it was software that once under a certain altitude and orbital velocity wouldn’t let the sats exit safe mode and use their ion engines to raise the orbit. They can and almost assuredly will change that code to allow a manual override. These sats carry plenty of fuel a 50% increase in drag would likely not pulled them back if they had full thrust on tap. It comes down to Delta V of fuel on board vs Delta V needed with the increased drag. They would still have 40 sats if they were up higher at 300+ km they are the only ones so far committed to zero orbital junk they reenter the second stages as well. The sats themselves burn up to tiny pieces none reaches the ground. Bravo SpaceX
I like how SpaceX prides themselves on zero debris. Of course that is also for their own benefit so their NUMEROUS (plethera of?) sats aren’t crashing into each other. I wonder if SpaceX is confined to a certain level of orbit “licensed” to them. Like a radio station is licensed at a certain frequency so as not to disturb other stations.
That must be REALLY complicated. And then add in all of the other countries with stuff up there, and then rogue countries (North Korea) that probably don’t even consult or know what is up there and they lob crap up.