US EditionPublished • loading... • Updated
Satellite Suffers Anomaly, Expected to Re-Enter Earth's Atmosphere, Starlink Says
The Starlink satellite lost communication after venting its propulsion tank, causing a 4 km orbital drop and debris release; it will reenter Earth's atmosphere within weeks, SpaceX said.
- On Dec. 17, a Starlink satellite suffered an anomaly and lost communications, now plunging toward Earth from about 418 kilometers.
- Venting of the propulsion tank caused a rapid semi‑major axis decay of about 4 km and released a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects, suggesting possible rupture or damage.
- Tracking teams are coordinating with NASA and the U.S. Space Force to monitor liberated debris, while SpaceX says the vehicle remains intact, is tumbling, and will fully demise within weeks.
- The size of the Starlink megaconstellation means about 9,000 active satellites and 65% of functional spacecraft, highlighting coordination challenges after a recent Chinese‑deployed satellite close approach.
- SpaceX said `We take these events seriously.` Its engineers are deploying software updates to increase protections while earlier this year retiring hundreds of satellites and last year de-orbiting 100 with a five-year design lifetime.
Insights by Ground AI
37 Articles
37 Articles
One of the Starlink's wide-band Internet satellites of SpaceX, Elon Musk's billionaire company, suffered anomaly on the orbit on Wednesday, December 17, and is now close to Earth, transmits wines Space.com, quoted by...
·Romania
Read Full ArticleCoverage Details
Total News Sources37
Leaning Left8Leaning Right7Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution40% Left
Bias Distribution
- 40% of the sources lean Left
40% Left
L 40%
C 25%
R 35%
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
