SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket’s Uncontrolled Stage Sets Off Fireworks Over Poland

Residents of northern Europe witnessed a slew of fireball-like objects flying across the sky yesterday morning — it turned out to be not a meteor, but debris from the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that launched another batch of Starlink satellites into orbit earlier this month. One of the fragments fell near the Polish city of Poznan.

Image source: Piotr/Kontakt24

Falcon 9 is known as a reliable reusable rocket that has already completed hundreds of missions. However, only its lower stage returns to Earth, while the second (upper) stage continues its flight into space, launching payloads, such as Starlink satellites, into the desired orbit. After that, it can independently deorbit and quickly burn up in the atmosphere over the ocean.

In this case, Falcon 9 successfully delivered 22 Starlink satellites, but its upper stage failed to perform the standard maneuver of active deorbit, as astronomer Jonathan McDowell pointed out. As a result, the process took an alternative course – part of the rocket burned up in the sky over Northern Europe, which does not correspond to the generally accepted ideas about the successful completion of the mission. The final section of the trajectory passed over the territory of Ukraine, the astronomer found.

Image source: x.com/planet4589

Image source: x.com/KarolWojcicki

The Falcon 9 upper stage made an “uncontrolled re-entry” over the country, the Polish Space Agency confirmed. “The rocket stage, weighing about 4 tons, was part of the SpaceX Starlink Group 11-4 mission,” the agency said. A local resident reported finding a piece of space debris on his property, possibly a high-pressure tank. Other debris has also been reported in Poland. The incident raises questions about the large volumes of space debris, given that SpaceX plans to launch more than 180 Falcon 9s this year, up from 134 last year.

Image source: epoznan.pl

«SpaceX has informed the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that the company is trying to confirm whether the space debris found in Poland belongs to it. The FAA has determined that all phases of the SpaceX Starlink 11-4 mission occurred within the scope of SpaceX’s licensed activities and that the company was in compliance with safety requirements at the time of the launch. According to regulations, after launch, SpaceX is required to report any deviations or anomalies that occurred during the mission to the FAA within 90 days. At this time, the FAA has not identified any events that could be classified as an emergency,” the agency told PCMag. SpaceX has not commented on the incident.