SpaceX recently confirmed that one of its Starlink satellites orbiting the planet has exploded, effectively rendering the spacecraft useless and is currently tumbling down for its re-entry.
Over the past few days, there have been speculations about this being caused by a collision with a rival space satellite from China, following a recent report that both satellites narrowly avoided each other in orbit.
SpaceX Confirms Starlink Satellite Explosion in Orbit
SpaceX shared a new post via Starlink’s X page, which officially confirmed the latest incident that took place in orbit, leading to one of its internet satellites exploding in the constellation. However, it is important to note that it is only this one satellite that exploded in orbit, with the other satellites in the constellation seemingly not affected by it, as SpaceX did not report any other problems.
According to SpaceX, this is an isolated incident because this specific satellite faced an anomaly in its operations, and this shuts down the earlier speculations that the explosion was caused by a collision of any kind.
“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,” said SpaceX.
SpaceX said that the debris of the fallen satellite is trackable, and they have a low relative velocity, suggesting that it is not a threat to the other satellites and space objects in the low-Earth orbit. That said, this debris still adds up to the massive problems in Earth’s orbit, particularly as many researchers and astronomers have raised their concerns about the prevalence of space garbage.
According to the Musk-owned space company, they are now coordinating with NASA and the US Space Force to track these objects floating in orbit.
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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…
— Starlink (@Starlink) December 18, 2025
Now Tumbling to Re-enter Earth—Is It Safe?
According to SpaceX, the defunct satellite is now tumbling and is expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in the coming weeks, assuring the public that it is fully intact.
“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,” said the private space company.
At present, the broken satellite is now tumbling towards the International Space Station, but its trajectory will only pass below the station as it heads to the Earth for its upcoming re-entry. SpaceX has not yet unveiled a timeline for when the re-entry takes place, but the company assures that it will not fall to the surface, claiming that it will fully disintegrate as it is set to face an atmosphere burn.
There have been previous incidents about SpaceX’s Starlink satellites facing threats from rival space companies that also have satellites in orbit, with the risk of collisions imminent. However, the reported cases were all close calls, and none have resulted in Starlink and its rivals actually colliding with each other.
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