March 30 (Reuters) – SpaceX’s Starlink said one of its satellites had an anomaly on-orbit on Sunday, leading to a loss of communications with the spacecraft at roughly 560 km (347.97 miles) above Earth, though the event does not pose a risk to key missions.
The event comes just ahead of the potential April 1 launch of the Artemis II mission, the first crewed test flight in NASA’s multibillion-dollar flagship effort to put humans back on the moon this decade.
Latest analysis showed that the event poses no new risk to the International Space Station, its crew, or to the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission, Starlink said in a post on X on Monday.
The company added it will continue to monitor satellite 34343, along with any trackable debris and will coordinate with the U.S. Space Force and NASA.
Starlink is working with SpaceX to actively “determine root cause and will rapidly implement any necessary corrective actions.”
The anomaly also posed no risk to the Falcon 9 Transporter-16 rideshare mission, which lifted off Monday morning, Starlink said. The mission was designed to deploy payloads above or below the Starlink constellation.
SpaceX, owned by billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is gearing up for a stock market debut that could value it at as much as $1.75 trillion, possibly making it the largest IPO in history.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Leroy Leo)
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