SpaceX’s Starlink has experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, which led to a loss of communications with the vehicle.

BREAKING: SpaceX's Starlink has experienced an anomaly on satellite 35956, which led to a loss of communications with the vehicle.

The satellite will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and "fully demise" within weeks, according to Starlink.

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One of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband internet satellites suffered an anomaly in orbit on Wednesday (Dec. 17) and is now plunging toward Earth.

The mishap led to a loss of communication with the Starlink spacecraft, which was orbiting at an altitude of 260 miles (418 kilometers), according to the company.

In addition, “the anomaly led to venting of the propulsion tank, a rapid decay in semi-major axis by about 4 km [2.5 miles], and the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects,” representatives of Starlink, a company that’s owned by SpaceX, said in an X post on Thursday morning (Dec. 18). That description suggests that the Starlink satellite’s propulsion tank may have ruptured or suffered some other type of damage.

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/satellites/a-spacex-starlink-satellite-is-tumbling-and-falling-out-of-space-after-partial-breakup-in-orbit