/nAnticipated and Recent Re-entries - eventually air drag, gravity or retro-fire mean that a spacecraft or satellite is no longer able to stay in orbit. It re-enters the atmosphere to be destroyed or make a safe landing.
Orbital Focus - International Spaceflight Facts and Figures
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Launches and Orbital Operations


Tyneside, UK
2026 Mar 8
Sunday, Day 67

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Feeling the Heat!

Air drag and, sometimes, gravitational effects cause satellites to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Occasionally, re-entry is caused by a deliberate decision of a satellite owner to fire a retro-rocket and bring some part of a space vehicle back to Earth.

Most re-entries result in the vehicle being destroyed by frictional heating as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere. Some fragments may get through and hit the Earth's surface - hence the system of TIP messages to warn of the event. Only a space vehicle fitted with a heat shield will get through the atmosphere for a landing.

NOTE - Names used here are as used by Space-Track rather than the more-descriptive ones in the Orbital Focus tables.


Anticipated Re-entries

Information comes from Space-Track. Most entries are from the 60-day decay prediction messages. If the re-entry date has already passed then you might find the object is also in the actual re-entry list further down the page.

Below are re-entries expected over the next few weeks. The table includes only natural re-entries of satellites and rocket bodies. It excludes debris items and planned events like a Soyuz, Shenzhou or Dragon spacecraft returning from space station duties.

Table created: 2026 Feb 27, 07:03 UTC

Cat No Designation Name
(SpaceTrack)
Predicted
Date UTC
Prediction
Issued UTC
50207    2021-125BDSTARLINK-32622026 Feb 262026 Feb 23
57306    2023-096SSTARLINK-302002026 Feb 272026 Feb 18
57296    2023-096GSTARLINK-302382026 Feb 272026 Feb 25
57311    2023-096XSTARLINK-301752026 Feb 272026 Feb 23
56965    2023-084AKDROID-0012026 Feb 282026 Feb 25
60139    2024-120ESTARLINK-318672026 Feb 282026 Feb 18
63892    2025-095CSTARLINK-341282026 Feb 282026 Feb 26
46337    2020-062NSTARLINK-17502026 Mar 12026 Feb 18
59080    2024-041GSTARLINK-312992026 Mar 12026 Feb 18
43521    2018-054DCZ-2C R/B2026 Mar 12026 Feb 25
46740    2020-074BSTARLINK-18482026 Mar 22026 Feb 18
60477    2024-149KSATORO-T22026 Mar 22026 Feb 25
45416    2020-019BJSTARLINK-13182026 Mar 22026 Feb 26
46330    2020-062FSTARLINK-17102026 Mar 22026 Feb 26
46366    2020-062ATSTARLINK-16512026 Mar 22026 Feb 27
46120    2020-057DSTARLINK-16012026 Mar 22026 Feb 26
45207    2020-012AFSTARLINK-12102026 Mar 32026 Feb 18
46541    2020-070KSTARLINK-16872026 Mar 42026 Feb 18
57118    2023-090TSTARLINK-61512026 Mar 42026 Feb 18
63555    2025-075HSTARLINK-116872026 Mar 42026 Feb 25
65942    1998-067XPE-KAGAKU-12026 Mar 42026 Feb 25
46333    2020-062JSTARLINK-17232026 Mar 52026 Feb 25
48145    2021-027BFSTARLINK-24882026 Mar 52026 Feb 25
50194    2021-125AQSTARLINK-32692026 Mar 62026 Feb 25
57292    2023-096CSTARLINK-302102026 Mar 62026 Feb 25
67002    2025-292KZK-1A R/B2026 Mar 62026 Feb 18
17295    1987-003ACOSMOS 18122026 Mar 72026 Feb 18
46336    2020-062MSTARLINK-17382026 Mar 72026 Feb 18
53901    2022-119RSTARLINK-50242026 Mar 72026 Feb 18
57307    2023-096TSTARLINK-302092026 Mar 72026 Feb 18
66989    2025-289BCZ-4B R/B2026 Mar 72026 Feb 18


Recent TIP Messages

Publication of TIP messages is not a matter of routine and they are not issued for all re-entries. They are more up to date and more precise than entries in the table and take precedence over them.

Readers unfamiliar with how to interpret TIP messages are recommended to read the Note at the bottom of the page.

Sometimes there may be a delay between the final TIP message and the re-entry being formally logged in Space-Track's Catalogue so a Message here may relate to a re-entry that has not yet moved from the 'Anticipated' list to the 'Recent' list.

Here is a list of TIP messages where the Window is less than about one quarter orbit. Even then it represents as much as +/-9000 km.

Table created: 2026 Feb 27, 07:03 UTC

Cat No &
Designation
Name
(Space-Track)
Terminal
Date & Time UTC
Lat, Long & Heading
(10 km altitude)
TIP Message
Issued UTC
67558
2026-015C
ELECTRON R/B2026 Feb 21 23:39
± 1 minutes
48°.3 south, 46°.2 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 22 01:24
63026
2025-033A
ELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B2026 Feb 23 22:06
± 2 minutes
59°.9 north, 14°.1 west
southbound, ± 0.02 orbits
2026 Feb 24 03:05
61793
2024-201B
PROTOSAT-12026 Feb 22 21:42
± 2 minutes
76°.2 north, 77°.7 east
southbound, ± 0.02 orbits
2026 Feb 24 11:20
60369
2024-138Q
STARLINK-322662026 Feb 22 12:42
± 1 minutes
32°.9 south, 150°.0 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 22 15:33
57311
2023-096X
STARLINK-301752026 Feb 24 10:53
± 1 minutes
5°.7 south, 110°.6 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 24 12:54
57306
2023-096S
STARLINK-302002026 Feb 24 03:59
± 1 minutes
37°.2 south, 131°.1 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 24 10:27
57296
2023-096G
STARLINK-302382026 Feb 25 09:37
± 1 minutes
12°.9 south, 106°.4 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 25 12:57
50207
2021-125BD
STARLINK-32622026 Feb 25 14:58
± 1 minutes
48°.3 south, 125°.8 east
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 25 17:09
47606
2021-009BL
STARLINK-20242026 Feb 24 03:31
± 1 minutes
32°.2 south, 3°.6 west
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 24 09:08
46690
2020-073W
STARLINK-17892026 Feb 24 18:37
± 2 minutes
50°.5 north, 90°.5 west
southbound, ± 0.02 orbits
2026 Feb 25 00:06
44234
2019-028B
PSLV R/B2026 Feb 25 01:29
± 1 minutes
30°.0 south, 48°.9 east
southbound, ± 0.01 orbits
2026 Feb 25 04:03


Recent Re-entries

This table is extracted from Space-Track's Catalogue and lists major re-entries that occurred in the last 30 days, whether natural or deliberate. Sometimes the date shown indicates when the object was first noticed as "missing from orbit", re-entry may have occurred at least one day earlier.

Table created: 2026 Feb 27, 07:03 UTC

Cat No Designation Name (SpaceTrack) Date UTC
 
50207   2021-125BDSTARLINK-32622026 Feb 25
57296   2023-096GSTARLINK-302382026 Feb 25
44234   2019-028BPSLV R/B2026 Feb 25
46690   2020-073WSTARLINK-17892026 Feb 24
47606   2021-009BLSTARLINK-20242026 Feb 24
57306   2023-096SSTARLINK-302002026 Feb 24
57311   2023-096XSTARLINK-301752026 Feb 24
45738   2020-038JSTARLINK-14742026 Feb 23
63026   2025-033AELECTRON KICK STAGE R/B2026 Feb 23
61793   2024-201BPROTOSAT-12026 Feb 22
60369   2024-138QSTARLINK-322662026 Feb 22
67558   2026-015CELECTRON R/B2026 Feb 21
57305   2023-096RSTARLINK-301772026 Feb 21
46154   2020-057APSTARLINK-16422026 Feb 20


Note on TIP Messages

Close to re-entry time for many objects, SpaceTrack issues TIP Messages with a more-precise warning of the event. The meaning of the TIP acronym is 'Tracking and Impact Prediction'.

The message includes an estimated latitude and longitude for when the object will go through a height of 10 kilometres (definition - Space-Track) above the ground based on the estimated time. It is a rough indication of the start point of the ellipse within which debris might fall given that horizontal velocity will have reduced to near-zero because of air resistance. In most cases, the location is meaningless in practical terms because the Window included in the Message covers a long track across the Earth's surface.

TIP Messages are often a source of confusion as people take the predicted time literally and ignore the error margin (Window) that is also part of the message. In 2011 RIA-Novosti used a TIP Message, issued several weeks in advance, to pinpoint a village in North Africa, doggedly insisting that it would feel the full force of of Phobos-Grunt’s re-entry. SpaceTrack's Window was ±2 days, representing over one million kilometres of ground track and a large proportion of the Earth's surface between 52° North and 52° South.


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