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SpaceX has lost control of one of its starlink satellite After a malfunction in the classroom, Elon Musk’s company has warned.
The space internet satellite encountered an anomaly on Wednesday, spacex Said, causing it to break into a smaller number of objects.
main part of starlink It is now “wobbly” in space and is expected to fall from orbit in the coming weeks.
“The anomaly caused the ejection of propulsion tanks, rapid decay by about 4 km in semi-major axis, and the ejection of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects,” SpaceX said in a statement.
“The satellite is largely intact, wobbly, and will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and be completely destroyed within a few weeks.”
According to SpaceX, the object’s current trajectory is below the International Space Station (ISS), meaning it poses no threat to the crew of the orbiting laboratory. SpaceX is coordinating with NASA and the US Space Force to track the satellite.
It is one of more than 10,000 satellites that SpaceX has launched for its broadband network since 2019, of which about 8,600 are currently active and operational.
Earlier this week, SpaceX revealed that a Starlink with two satellites was nearly collided with another launch from a Chinese competitor coming within 200 meters Of each other.
There have been several close calls for Starlink satellites, with experts warning that collisions could become increasingly common as mega constellations like Starlink fill low-Earth orbit.
Operational Starlink satellites have onboard thrusters that allow them to maneuver when needed, although this requires space operators to cooperate with each other.
“Much of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators – that needs to change,” said Michael Nichols, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX.
Chinese launch provider CAS Space also called for greater cooperation between international space agencies and private companies.
Any possible collision may result in what is called Kessler syndromeCausing pieces of debris to multiply and collide in a domino effect that creates an impenetrable layer of debris that traps us on Earth.
As SpaceX continues to track the broken Starlink satellite, a representative for the company said it is working to find out what caused the problem so it can be prevented from happening again.
“As the world’s largest satellite constellation operator, we are deeply committed to space security,” SpaceX said in a statement.
“We take these incidents seriously. Our engineers are rapidly working on root causes and narrowing down the source of the anomaly and are already in the process of deploying software in our vehicles that increases protection against these types of incidents.”