SpaceX says it has lost control of its Starlink satellite, which is now returning to Earth after suffering a malfunction. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, “venting of the propulsion tank”, and “release of a small number of objects of low traceable relative velocity” indicate that this anomaly was some type of explosion. SpaceX says it poses no threat to the ISS crew and will burn up in the atmosphere “within weeks.”
Space tracking company Leo Labs says everything that happened to Starlink 35956 was likely caused by “Internal power source“And not a collision.” Its radar network has detectedDozens of objects“About the satellite after the event.
The accident occurred 418 kilometers (260 miles) away, an increasingly crowded area known as low Earth orbit where more than 24,000 objects, including satellites and debris, are currently being tracked.
By the end of this decade, there could be as many as 70,000 satellites operating in the same region, most of them serving satellite Internet constellations like Starlink launched by private and government organizations in the United States, China, and Europe. Such density not only creates problems for astronomers, but also increases the odds of a collision that could, in theory, spiral out of control.