Runaway Starlink satellite avoids ISS collision by accident as SpaceX races toward 15,000-strong DTC network

With Starlink's satellite constellation reaching a massive amount of more than 9,000 units doing complicated orbital maneuvers in space, a mishap was bound to happen.

SpaceX reported the first Starlink satellite "anomaly" that made it vent out the argon propulsion tank and sent it hurtling uncontrollably through space. What has essentially become space debris now, or "the release of a small number of trackable low relative velocity objects," as Starlink puts it, might be a harbinger of things to come as SpaceX launches an ever-increasing number of satellites with the goal to become a cell phone carrier in space with a true 5G network delivering up to 100 Mbps speeds to unmodified phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

SpaceX doesn't yet know what may have caused the "anomaly on satellite 35956," which sounds like a title of a sci-fi novel, but calmed astronaut spirits down by saying that the satellite is hurtling through space on a path that wouldn't cross that of the International Space Station.

The fact that the "satellite's current trajectory will place it below the ISS, posing no risk to the orbiting lab or its crew" sounds entirely coincidental, and the satellite will be uncontrollable for at least a few weeks before it enters the Earth's atmosphere to burn there.

SpaceX's engineers are investigating what exactly happened, but with the White House administration announcing plans to build an ISS alternative and Starlink applying for permits to launch 15,000 direct-to-cell V3 satellites, each the size of a Boeing 737 when unfurled, these incidents are bound to become more frequent and dangerous.