A Starlink satellite seems to have exploded
SpaceX claims to have lost control of a Starlink satellite which is now falling back to Earth after suffering an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, “propulsion tank venting” and “release of a small number of traceable objects at low relative velocity” suggest that the anomaly was some sort of explosion. SpaceX says it poses no threat to the ISS crew and will burn up in the atmosphere “within a few weeks.”
Space tracking company Leo Labs says what happened to Starlink 35956 was likely caused by an “internal energy source,” not a collision. Its radar network detected “dozens of objects” around the satellite after the event.
The incident occurred at 418 km (260 miles), an increasingly populated area known as low Earth orbit, where more than 24,000 objects, including satellites and debris, are currently tracked.
By the end of this decade, as many as 70,000 satellites could be operational in this same region, primarily serving space-based 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 it also increases the chances of a collision that could, in theory, spiral out of control.
