Starlink satellite pictured ‘tumbling’ after recent ‘anomaly’ in space — it will be incinerated when it enters the Earth’s atmosphere in a few weeks

Starlink satellite 35956 suffered from a serious anomaly on December 17. It is described as largely intact, but is currently “tumbling, and will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks,” says the official Starlink X account. Geospatial intelligence partner Vantor shared what is likely the last clear image of the ill-fated satellite after SpaceX urgently requested visual intelligence.

Space anomaly damages satellite 35956

We don’t have a clear description of what exactly happened with satellite 35956. Starlink just describes the problem as an “anomaly” that occurred on December 17. Engineers working for Starlink are said to be “rapidly working to root cause and mitigate the source of the anomaly.” No insight into this investigation is ready yet, but apparently, some software changes are already being deployed that “increases protections against this type of event.”

It was observed that satellite 35956 lost communications at an altitude of 418km. “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,” says Starlink.

Currently, the “tumbling” satellite remains largely intact, according to the satellite communications firm. It is estimated that it will “reenter the Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise within weeks.” Importantly, neither the larger part of the satellite nor its “small number of trackable low relative velocity objects” are thought to pose any threat to humans on Earth. It is also noted that its trajectory will place it below the International Space Station, so those folks don’t need to worry either.

Partner SpaceX urgently requested visual intelligence, and Vantor quickly responded by capturing a “12 cm non-Earth image that provided visual intelligence about the condition of the spacecraft.”

Vantor explains that its WorldView-3 satellite was 241 km away from the Starlink satellite 35956 when it captured this image of the “tumbling” spacecraft. The image reproduced in the LinkedIn post isn’t the sharpest picture of a satellite we have seen, but it was enough to “provide confirmation that the satellite was mostly intact, enabling SpaceX to assess potential damage,” says Vantor.

Starlink is currently the largest satellite operator by quite some margin. There are approximately 12,000 active satellites now in LEO space, with over 8,000 operated by Starlink. Tens of thousands more are planned by Starlink and global rivals, and it isn’t surprising that there are issues, accidents, and near-misses from time to time.

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