"Although the stage survived and still deployed the satellites, it did not successfully circularize [sic] its orbit, but it did passivate [sic] itself as normally performed at the end of each mission," the company added. "This left the satellites in an eccentric orbit with a very low perigee of 135 km, which is less than half the expected perigee altitude."

"At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites," SpaceX representatives wrote. "As such, the satellites will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and fully demise [sic]."

The APStar-6E is operated by Hong Kong-based APT Mobile Satcom Limited and managed by APT Satellite Company Limited. The APStar-6E focuses on the Southeast Asian market, providing high-capacity, cost-effective broadband communication services to the region.

The APStar-6E communication satellite and its independent propulsion module were successfully launched by a Long March-2C carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Southwest China's Sichuan Province on January 13, 2023. After separating from the propulsion module on January 23 of the same year, the satellite used its onboard Hall/Ion dual electric propulsion systems to autonomously change orbits, reaching geosynchronous orbit (GEO) and positioning at its test location on June 10, 2024.