Thread | Brutkey

Starlink satellite anomaly at 418 km altitude. Loss of comms, venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km, and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects.

Starlink states that there is no risk to the ISS. The largely intact tumbling satellite will reenter the atmosphere in a few weeks.

No explanation for the cause of the low velocity objects. An explosion?

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social
1/n

Tweet from Starlink @Starlink
On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in loss of communications with the vehicle at 418 km. The anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km, and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects. SpaceX is coordinating with the @USSpaceForce and @NASA to monitor the objects.

The satellite is largely intact, tumbling, and will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks. The satellite's current trajectory will place it below the @Space_Station, posing no risk to the orbiting lab or its crew.

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.

https://x.com/Starlink/status/2001691802911289712

Prof. Sam Lawler
@sundogplanets@mastodon.social

@AkaSci@fosstodon.org I call BS on that "no risk to the ISS" - if this satellite is only a few km lower altitude and just ejected a bunch of debris, there will definitely be ISS-altitude-crossing debris. But maybe the orbits don't intersect for the next few days? Would be nice if SpaceX specifically stated that.