A Starlink satellite seems to have exploded

SpaceX says it has lost control of a Starlink satellite that’s now falling back to Earth after suffering an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, “venting of the propulsion tank,” and “release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects,” suggests the anomaly was some kind of explosion. SpaceX says it poses no threat to the crew of the ISS and will burn up in the atmosphere “within weeks.”

Space-tracking company Leo Labs says whatever happened to Starlink 35956 was likely caused by an “internal energetic source,” not a collision. Its radar network detected “tens of objects” around the satellite after the event.

The incident happened at 418km (260 miles), an increasingly crowded area known as low Earth orbit where over 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 that same region, mostly in the service of space internet constellations like Starlink being launched by private and government organizations in the US, China, and Europe. Such density not only creates issues for astronomers, it also increases the odds of a collision that could, in theory, cascade out of control.