"Starlink provided a few details shortly after the December 2025 incident, saying on December 18 that an '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.'"
"'Our engineers are rapidly working to [identify the] root cause and mitigate the source of the anomaly and are already in the process of deploying software to our vehicles that increases protections against this type of event,' Starlink said in the December 18 post."
"'Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators-this needs to change,' Nicolls wrote at the time, referring to the Chinese launch."
Starlink experienced an anomaly in December 2025, leading to the venting of a propulsion tank and a significant orbital decay. The satellite was largely intact but tumbling and expected to reenter the atmosphere soon. Starlink expressed confidence in preventing future anomalies, with engineers working on root cause identification and software deployment for enhanced protections. Additionally, a near-crash incident occurred due to a lack of coordination from a Chinese satellite launch, highlighting the need for improved collaboration among satellite operators to mitigate collision risks.
Read at Ars Technica
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