News

Reuters • Juby Babu

Starlink satellite 35956 fragments and tumbles at 418 km after Dec. 17 anomaly, ejecting trackable debris

On December 17, 2025, SpaceX reported that Starlink satellite 35956 experienced an in-orbit anomaly at roughly 418 km, lost communications and began tumbling. The failure produced a small number of trackable, low-relative-velocity debris fragments; SpaceX says the spacecraft is expected to re-enter and burn up.

2025-12-18T09:55:24.907042-08:00

Scientific American

CRASH Clock: LEO collision-avoidance windows compressed to days (2.8–5.5) as constellations surge

2025-12-18T06:14:12.772671-08:00

Payload

2025: Over a Dozen Companies Advance Orbital Reentry and Payload‑Return Vehicles

2025-12-18T05:52:30.322548-08:00

SpaceNews.com

Max Space unveils commercial space station sized for single Falcon 9 launch

2025-12-17T06:07:12.214557-08:00

News Timeline

Reuters

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Starlink satellite 35956 fragments and tumbles at 418 km after Dec. 17 anomaly, ejecting trackable debris On December 17, 2025, SpaceX reported that Starlink satellite 35956 experienced an in-orbit anomaly at roughly 418 km, lost communications and began tumbling. The failure produced a small number of trackable, low-relative-velocity debris fragments; SpaceX says the spacecraft is expected to re-enter and burn up.

2025-12-18T09:55:24.907042-08:00

Starlink satellite 35956 fragments and tumbles at 418 km after Dec. 17 anomaly, ejecting trackable debris

Scientific American

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CRASH Clock: LEO collision-avoidance windows compressed to days (2.8–5.5) as constellations surge The 'CRASH Clock' quantifies expected time to a collision in low Earth orbit if avoidance maneuvers stopped. As of June 2025 researchers place that window at roughly 2.8–5.5 days — down from 164 days in January 2018 — driven by mega-constellation deployments and emerging 'space data centers'.

2025-12-18T06:14:12.772671-08:00

CRASH Clock: LEO collision-avoidance windows compressed to days (2.8–5.5) as constellations surge

Payload

2025: Over a Dozen Companies Advance Orbital Reentry and Payload‑Return Vehicles The orbital‑reentry sector surged in 2025: more than a dozen companies passed development milestones advancing vehicles designed to return payloads from orbit. The cluster of successes marks concentrated progress across commercial and institutional efforts to field near‑term orbital return capability.

2025-12-18T05:52:30.322548-08:00

2025: Over a Dozen Companies Advance Orbital Reentry and Payload‑Return Vehicles

SpaceNews.com

Max Space unveils commercial space station sized for single Falcon 9 launch Max Space, a startup developing expandable module technologies, unveiled plans for a commercial space station engineered to launch on a single SpaceX Falcon 9. The concept leverages inflatable/expandable modules to fit within Falcon 9 constraints, aiming to simplify deployment of a LEO commercial habitat.

2025-12-17T06:07:12.214557-08:00

Max Space unveils commercial space station sized for single Falcon 9 launch

Payload

Commercial LEO Destinations — 2025 Wrap: Who’s Racing to Replace the ISS?

2025-12-17T05:34:00.572849-08:00

Commercial LEO Destinations —

Payload

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Starfish Space and Impulse Space complete Remora autonomous rendezvous using single‑camera guidance Starfish Space and Impulse Space have completed Remora, an in‑orbit autonomous rendezvous and proximity‑operations (RPO) demonstration using a single camera as the primary sensor. The test paired Impulse's spacecraft with Starfish's navigation software to perform automated close approaches without additional guidance hardware.

2025-12-15T06:06:19.029329-08:00

Starfish Space and Impulse Space complete Remora autonomous rendezvous using single‑camera guidance

Universe Today

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2.8 Days to Disaster: arXiv paper warns mega-constellations could trigger LEO collision cascade A new arXiv preprint by Sarah Thiele and co-authors warns that today's mega-constellation deployments have created a "house of cards" in low Earth orbit, and that a catastrophic collision cascade could unfold in as little as 2.8 days without stronger mitigation.

2025-12-15T05:03:20.182927-08:00

2.8 Days to Disaster: arXiv paper warns mega-constellations could trigger LEO collision cascade

Space.com

SpaceX launches Starlink 6-82 from Cape Canaveral amid 25–35 kt winds; 100th Falcon 9 flight from Florida in 2025 SpaceX lifted a Falcon 9 with the Starlink 6-82 payload from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 12:25 a.m. EST on Dec. 15, inserting another batch of broadband satellites despite a strong-wind advisory calling for 25–35 kt gusts. The mission was the 100th Falcon 9 flight from Florida in 2025.

2025-12-14T21:45:14.004551-08:00

SpaceX launches Starlink 6-82 from Cape Canaveral amid 25–35 kt winds; 100th Falcon 9 flight from Florida in 2025

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LEO News

Starlink satellite 35956 fragments and tumbles at 418 km after Dec. 17 anomaly, ejecting trackable debris

CRASH Clock: LEO collision-avoidance windows compressed to days (2.8–5.5) as constellations surge

2025: Over a Dozen Companies Advance Orbital Reentry and Payload‑Return Vehicles

Max Space unveils commercial space station sized for single Falcon 9 launch

News Timeline