While collision avoidance alerts have become an  almost weekly occurrence at ESA mission control, the world’s largest satellite operator,  the SpaceX-owned Starlink, reported more than 49,000 risk mitigation manoeuvres in  the six months to the end of May 2024. Its fleet has grown to a total of  almost 7,000 craft in orbit.

On average, around a dozen “fragmentations”, break-ups caused by collisions or  wear and tear, have been recorded every year over the past 20 years, and  observations suggest they’re on the rise, amid booming demand for satellite services.

When a defunct Russian craft collided with  an Iridium communications satellite in 2009, thousands of fragments were left behind,  threatening more craft and more collisions, which would create even more debris. This cascading space junk scenario is the Kessler syndrome, named after a NASA scientist who foresaw  the possibility back in the late 1970s.

The good news is there were no injuries or reports of significant damage from the wreckage that fell over the Turks and Caicos. "The FAA confirmed one report of minor damage to a vehicle located in South Caicos," an FAA spokesperson told Ars on Friday. "To date, there are no other reports of damage." It's not clear if the vehicle owner in South Caicos will file a claim against SpaceX for the damage. It would be the first time someone makes such a claim related to an accident with a commercial rocket overseen by the FAA.

MARIA PAZ: They're not flying, they're not weightless. They're not in zero G, but instead, up there in the Space Station ... MICHELLE THALLER: The reason you can put your pen right beside you and it'll just float when you let go of it, the pen and you are falling towards the Earth at exactly the same rate. MARIA PAZ: What? MICHELLE THALLER: They're falling. ANNIE: They're falling? MICHELLE THALLER: Yes! Every second of every day they're up there, their whole space containment, their capsule, their space station, everything's falling. They're freely falling towards the Earth. ANNIE: Oh my God! MICHELLE THALLER: I mean, if you've ever been on, like, a really great roller coaster that drops, that kind of thing, I mean, that is what they feel. They feel like they're falling. MARIA PAZ: Ugh, that's nauseating! MICHELLE THALLER: Oh, yeah. Some people get very sick. [laughs]

Taiwan is planning a satellite internet service amid China invasion fears after seeing how much Elon Musk's Starlink has helped in Ukraine