On December 17th, Starlink experienced an anomaly on one of its 9,000 orbiting satellites (official reference satellite 35,956), resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 418km altitude. The anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4km, and the release of a small number of trackable elements. These pieces are described by Starlink as “low velocity objects”.

The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks. The satellite’s current trajectory will place it below the International Space Station posing no risk to the orbiting lab or its crew, said Starlink.

“As the world’s largest satellite constellation operator, we are deeply committed to space safety. We take these events seriously. Our engineers are rapidly working to root cause and mitigate the source of the anomaly and are already in the process of deploying software to our vehicles that increases protections against this type of event,” added Starlink.

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Categories: Articles, Broadband, Satellite

Tags: satellite, starlink