Solar storm destroys 40 SpaceX Starlink’s newly launched satellites
Musk has launched hundreds of small satellites into orbit since 2019 as part of Starlink’s service for broadband internet
09 February 2022 - 21:15
bySteve Gorman
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Los Angeles — A geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun has disabled at least 40 of the 49 satellites newly launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network, the company said.
The announcement, posted on the company’s website on Tuesday, said the satellites were stricken last Friday, February 4, a day after they were launched to a preliminary “low-deployment” orbit about 210km above Earth.
Launch of the satellites, carried aloft by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flown from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, roughly coincided with a geomagnetic storm watch posted for last Wednesday and Thursday by the US Space Weather Prediction Center.
The alert warned that solar flare activity from a “full halo coronal mass ejection” — a large blast of solar plasma and electromagnetic radiation from the sun’s surface — was detected on January 29, and was likely to reach Earth as early as February 1.
The alert also said resulting geomagnetic storm conditions on Earth were “likely to persist” into February 3 “at weakening levels”.
According to SpaceX, the speed and severity of the solar storm warmed Earth’s atmosphere, thus increasing atmospheric density at the low-orbit altitude of the satellites, essentially creating intense friction or drag that knocked out at least 40 of the satellites.
Starlink operators tried commanding the satellites into a “safe-mode” orbital configuration allowing them to fly edge-on to minimise drag, but those efforts failed for most of the satellites, forcing them into lower levels of the atmosphere where they safely burnt up on re-entry over the Earth, according to SpaceX.
“This is unprecedented as far as I know,” Harvard University-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said in an email, saying it was the first time he was aware of satellite failures caused by an increase in atmospheric density from a solar storm, rather by higher electromagnetic radiation itself.
SpaceX, the Los Angeles area-based rocket company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has launched hundreds of small satellites into orbit since 2019 as part of Musk’s Starlink service for broadband internet. The company ultimately envisions a constellation of roughly 12,000 satellites in all.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Solar storm destroys 40 SpaceX Starlink’s newly launched satellites
Musk has launched hundreds of small satellites into orbit since 2019 as part of Starlink’s service for broadband internet
Los Angeles — A geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun has disabled at least 40 of the 49 satellites newly launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network, the company said.
The announcement, posted on the company’s website on Tuesday, said the satellites were stricken last Friday, February 4, a day after they were launched to a preliminary “low-deployment” orbit about 210km above Earth.
Launch of the satellites, carried aloft by a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket flown from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, roughly coincided with a geomagnetic storm watch posted for last Wednesday and Thursday by the US Space Weather Prediction Center.
The alert warned that solar flare activity from a “full halo coronal mass ejection” — a large blast of solar plasma and electromagnetic radiation from the sun’s surface — was detected on January 29, and was likely to reach Earth as early as February 1.
The alert also said resulting geomagnetic storm conditions on Earth were “likely to persist” into February 3 “at weakening levels”.
According to SpaceX, the speed and severity of the solar storm warmed Earth’s atmosphere, thus increasing atmospheric density at the low-orbit altitude of the satellites, essentially creating intense friction or drag that knocked out at least 40 of the satellites.
Starlink operators tried commanding the satellites into a “safe-mode” orbital configuration allowing them to fly edge-on to minimise drag, but those efforts failed for most of the satellites, forcing them into lower levels of the atmosphere where they safely burnt up on re-entry over the Earth, according to SpaceX.
“This is unprecedented as far as I know,” Harvard University-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said in an email, saying it was the first time he was aware of satellite failures caused by an increase in atmospheric density from a solar storm, rather by higher electromagnetic radiation itself.
SpaceX, the Los Angeles area-based rocket company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has launched hundreds of small satellites into orbit since 2019 as part of Musk’s Starlink service for broadband internet. The company ultimately envisions a constellation of roughly 12,000 satellites in all.
Reuters
DINNER PARTY INTEL: Moon gets a rocket
SA nanosatellites to go to space aboard Elon Musk’s rocket
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.