SpaceX says it has lost control of its Starlink satellite which is now falling back to Earth after an anomaly. The sudden loss of communications, drop in altitude, “extrusion of propulsion tanks” and “exit of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects” suggest that the 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.”
The event occurred at 418 km (260 mi), an increasingly crowded region 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 area, the majority of which are 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 problems for astronomers, but it also increases the chance of collisions, which could theoretically spin out of control.
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