THE low earth orbit — the strip of space located at an altitude of less than 2,000 kilometers — is increasingly populated. In recent years, thousands of satellites were launched to offer services such as Internet from space anywhere in the world, Earth observation or communications.
The biggest player in this scenario is star linkthe project to offer satellite internet to Elon Musk’s aerospace company, SpaceX. Since 2019, it has launched more than 10,000 satellites into space and the network already serves more than 8 million subscribers worldwide, including Spain.
This accelerated growth has collateral effects: increased risk of collisionsfurther space debrisproblems for astronomy —due to the brightness of the satellites—and greater complexity for manage space traffic. And this week, one of those risks materialized.
A satellite loses control in full orbit
The past December 17one of the Starlink satellites, identified as the 35956suffered a serious anomaly in orbit at approximately 418 kilometers altitudewhich caused the total loss of communication with the ship.
As SpaceX officially explained, the failure caused the propulsion tank ventA rapid fall of its orbit -with a reduction of approximately four kilometers– and the release of a small number of traceable objectsthat is to say fragments that must now be monitored from Earth. “On December 17, Starlink experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, resulting in a loss of communication with the vehicle 418 km away,” the company explains in its press release.
Why is such an incident worrying?
When a satellite loses control and generates fragments, even if they are few in number, the risk of them remains increasing. collide with other operational satellites. In an environment as saturated as low orbit, a single incident can force evasive maneuversaffect active services or, in the worst case, cause a collision chain reaction.
For this reason, SpaceX has activated monitoring protocols and is coordination with the United States Space Force and NASA to monitor both the satellite and the released objects.
The company insists that, despite the failure, the satellite is virtually intactalthough spin uncontrollablyand that his destiny is already marked: will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming weeksOr will completely disintegrate.
Furthermore, SpaceX emphasizes that the trajectory of the satellite lies beneath the International Space StationThus poses no danger to the orbiting laboratory or its crew.
SpaceX promises measures to avoid a repeat
As “the largest operator of satellite constellations in the world”, SpaceX recognizes the seriousness of the incident and ensures that it responds as a priority. He specifies that his engineers “work quickly to identify and mitigate the cause of the anomaly» and they already are implement improvements software on other satellites for reduce the risk of recurrence.
“We take these events very seriously,” says the company, which underlines its deep commitment to space security.
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