Elon Musk’s space internet company said the satellite, which appears to have exploded, did not appear to pose a risk to the ISS or NASA’s upcoming lunar mission.
By Claire Cameron edited by Lee Billings
Photoillustration by Cheng Xin/Getty Images
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One of Elon Musk’s Starlinks Internet satellites suffered an “anomaly” on Sunday while in orbit around Earth, the company said in a social media post. The incident appears to have created debris, fragments of which are likely to fall to Earth over the coming weeks, according to LeoLabsa company that monitors satellites in low Earth orbit.
The satellite lost communication about 560 kilometers above Earth, Starlink said. While the statement from Starlink, which is a subsidiary of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company, simply said investigations were underway, LeoLabs said its radar observations of the event pointed to an “internal energy source” as the likely cause rather than a collision. SpaceX and LeoLabs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The incident highlights the potential dangers of an increasingly a large number of satellites and other spacecraft in low Earth orbit – some 10,000 Starlinks are currently in orbit and counting. Starlink’s statement said “the event poses no new risks” to the International Space Station or the upcoming NASA satellite launch. Artemis II mission, scheduled for April 1.
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Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist who closely follows space activity, is more skeptical, however. “I don’t see how the risks can be zero,” he says. “They are low because all the debris should come in quickly. But I would like to know more about why they rate the risk at zero.” And if the fragmentation event results from a design flaw, McDowell adds, it could affect hundreds of Starlinks, “and then the risks increase significantly.”
“We hope that SpaceX will identify the root cause and proactively remove any particular subset of satellites deemed to be at risk,” he says.
Editor’s Note (03/31/26): This is a developing story and may be updated.
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