SpaceX Starlink satellite suffers mysterious ‘anomaly’ in orbit

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/spacex-starlink-satellite-suffers-mysterious-anomaly-in-orbit/

14 Comments

  1. koos_die_doos on

    > One of Elon Musk’s Starlink 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 some debris, with fragments likely to fall to Earth over the next few weeks, according to LeoLabs, a company that monitors satellites in low-Earth orbit.

    It suffered a RUD, will be interesting to see how long the debris stays in orbit. It supposedly de orbits in a maximum of 5 years.

  2. FluffyBunnyFlipFlops on

    Kessler syndrome, here we come! Saving the galaxy from humans.

    Edit: It was meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comment. You guys are pretty serious in this sub, huh?

  3. Journalists really should refrain from using the word mysterious as much as possible. People run with that and all the sudden everyone believes aliens are attacking our internet.

  4. Moist-Protection3711 on

    New weather alert…… chance of falling space junk over next two weeks.

  5. Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    |Fewer Letters|More Letters|
    |——-|———|—|
    |[COPV](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odj3fg6 “Last usage”)|[Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composite_overwrapped_pressure_vessel)|
    |[LEO](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odip4z2 “Last usage”)|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)|
    | |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)|
    |[RUD](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odj6dlk “Last usage”)|Rapid Unplanned Disassembly|
    | |Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly|
    | |Rapid Unintended Disassembly|

    |Jargon|Definition|
    |——-|———|—|
    |[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odja11y “Last usage”)|SpaceX’s world-wide satellite broadband constellation|
    |[apogee](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odjl3zw “Last usage”)|Highest point in an elliptical orbit around Earth (when the orbiter is slowest)|
    |[lithobraking](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odjodkp “Last usage”)|”Braking” by hitting the [ground](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lith-)|
    |[perigee](/r/Space/comments/1s8ps7o/stub/odjo691 “Last usage”)|Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest)|

    Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.

    —————-
    ^(7 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/1s2ocv8)^( has 14 acronyms.)
    ^([Thread #12293 for this sub, first seen 31st Mar 2026, 16:21])
    ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)

  6. socialistpizzaparty on

    “Wait, what version of Axios are we running up there?!” – Some SpaceX Dev

  7. Putin is like, what? Me? No, it’s not like starlink could change the outcome of the war in Ukraine

  8. No you didn’t mention anything about the article. However the article uses a source, thus giving this comment section the shared context for this conversation. Reading the article helps interpret comments.