SpaceX Starlink satellite sparks brilliant fireball as it falls from space over US (videos)

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A SpaceX Starlink internet satellite fell from space in a blaze of glory overnight, lighting up the Midwest U.S. sky with a brilliant fireball.

Stargazers across parts of Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois witnessed the Starlink satellite's fiery demise as it burned up in Earth's atmosphere late Tuesday (Jan. 28) and were quick to share videos of the sight.

"WOAH. Something big just broke apart over Northern Illinois. What a sight!" a skywatcher with the username boinksi wrote on the social media site X. A video with the post shows a stream off fiery space debris streaking over a rooftop and trees.

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who tracks satellite reentries, wrote on X that the space debris was a SpaceX Starlink 5693 satellite, which had been slowly falling from orbit since Dec. 6.

"Starlink 5693 appears to have reentered over the southern Wisconsin/Michigan area at about 0303 to 0305 UTC Jan 29 (9.03 to 9.05pm CST) and was widely observed from neighbouring regions including Chicago," McDowell wrote on X Wednesday night.

The Starlink satellite reentry sparked at least 62 fireball reports to the American Meteor Society, which shared images and photos of the event by witnesses. In one video, captured by observer John Aubert of Crystal Lake, Illinois, the fireball streaks over the roof of a home and trees.

Another video, recorded by Tanya Renz of Mazomanie, Wisconsin, captured the spectacle as well.

"I don't think that's normal," an observer says in the video.

Starlink 5693 was one of thousands of Starlink internet satellites SpaceX has launched into orbit as part of a global satellite megaconstellation designed to provide high-speed internet service across Earth.

SpaceX typically launches Starlink satellites in batches of 20 or more. They are designed to last around five years in low Earth orbit before they are deorbited and burn up in Earth's atmosphere. At the end of their lives, Starlink satellites use electric thrusters to lower themselves to an altitude of about 155 miles (250 kilometers), at which point atmospheric drag slows them further until they fall from space, McDowell said. The process takes about a week.

The result is a visually stunning fireball across the night sky, but it's a common event for SpaceX's Starlink constellation, which currently consists of 6,900 operational satellites, according to McDowell's records.

"They are retiring and incinerating about 4 or 5 Starlinks every day at the moment, spread across the world," McDowell wrote on X. "Sometimes you get one at night time in the US."