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Last Tuesday (28), a stunning explosion lit up the sky in the US Midwest: a Starlink satellite, SpaceX’s Internet service, fell from orbit and disintegrated upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, creating a fireball that was visible in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois.
The residents of the region were amazed by the spectacle and quickly shared videos of the event. In a post on social network X (formerly Twitter), user boinksi wrote: “WOW. Something big just went down in northern Illinois. What a sight!” In the post, he shared a video where it is possible to see the debris burning in the sky as it passes through an area of rooftops and trees.
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics confirmed that the satellite in question was Starlink 5693, which had been in slow decline since December 6.
The American Meteor Society has received nearly 70 reports of fireballs, with pictures and videos recorded by witnesses. One was captured by John Aubert of Crystal Lake, Illinois, showing the path of the fireball over the roof of a house.
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Another video, filmed by Tanya Renz in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, also documented the phenomenon, with one observer commenting, “I don’t think this is normal.”
SpaceX brings down up to five Starlink satellites a day to Earth
Starlink 5693 was part of a large set of satellites launched by SpaceX to form a mega-constellation that aims to provide high-speed Internet to various parts of the world.
The company launches these satellites in batches of 20 or more, and at the end of their useful life, which lasts about five years, the equipment is deorbited. They use electric thrusters to reduce their altitude to about 250 km, at which point atmospheric drag slows them down, causing them to disintegrate in the atmosphere. McDowell explains that this process takes a week and results in a fireball sighting in the sky.
This type of re-entry is common for the Starlink constellation, which currently has about 6,900 operational satellites, according to McDowell’s records. According to him, SpaceX retires between four and five Starlink satellites a day, and they could “fall” around the world.
