Due to a geomagnetic storm that struck just a day after the fleet's launch last week, SpaceX is in the process of losing up to 40 brand-new Starlink Internet satellites.
On Thursday (Feb. 3) from NASA's historic Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starlink satellites. A geomagnetic storm over Earth the next day significantly increased the density of the atmosphere, increasing the drag on the satellites and dooming most of them.
"Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe mode to begin orbit-raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere," SpaceX wrote in an update Tuesday (Feb. 8).
According to the US's Space Weather Prediction Center, geomagnetic storms occur when powerful solar wind near Earth causes shifting currents and plasmas in the Earth's magnetosphere. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This interaction has the potential to warm the upper atmosphere of Earth and increase the density of the atmosphere far enough above the globe to damage satellites in low orbits, such as SpaceX's upcoming Starlink spacecraft. Earlier this month, the sun erupted on Jan. 30 sending a charged particle tsunami toward Earth, which was expected to arrive on Feb. 2.
An initial orbit that skimmed as low as 130 miles (210 kilometers) above Earth at its lowest point was used to deploy the 49 satellites SpaceX launched last week. According to SpaceX, the Starlink batches are placed in a low orbit so that if they fail shortly after launch, they may be disposed of quickly. The fleet was exposed to Friday's geomagnetic storm as a result of the orbit design.
"In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches," SpaceX noted in its update. As the corporation cooperated with the United States, the satellites were placed in a protective "safe mode" and instructed to fly edge-on "like a sheet of paper" to minimize drag impacts. It also stated that the Space Force and the business LeoLabs will use ground-based radar to follow them.
The drag, however, was too strong for the majority of the new Starlink satellites. Up to 40 of them were predicted to tumble out of orbit like space trash just days after their launch, locked in their safe mode.
SpaceX noted on the satellites' reentry, "The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry — meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation."
The Starlink 4-7 mission, which SpaceX launched last week, was the company's third Starlink voyage in 2022. More than 1,800 additional Starlink satellites are now in orbit, with the 49 satellites anticipated to join them. Following the launch of an Italian Earth-observation satellite on January 31 and another for the US National Reconnaissance Office on February 2, the mission was SpaceX's third in four days.
In order to establish a megaconstellation in orbit that might eventually number up to 42,000 satellites, SpaceX has launched fleets of Starlink satellites, sometimes up to 60 at a time, since 2019. According to SpaceX, the initiative aims to provide high-speed internet connection to clients everywhere on the planet, particularly in distant or underserved locations.
Astronomers have criticized the Starlink project because of the megaconstellation's impact on astronomical observations, as the large number of satellites transiting the night sky might cause stray lines in telescope images. Since then, SpaceX has sought to decrease the influence of their Starlink satellites on the astronomical community by limiting their visibility.
