SpaceX may lose 40 Starlink satellites due to geomagnetic storm – IT Pro – News

SpaceX is likely to lose a large portion of a newly launched batch of Starlink satellites. A geomagnetic storm in the atmosphere caused much more drag and will cause up to 40 satellites to fall back into the atmosphere and burn up.

SpaceX says that a preliminary analysis shows that the increased drag at low altitudes prevented the satellites from emerging from their safe mode. This prevented them from beginning their maneuvers to get into higher Earth orbit. SpaceX’s Starlink team put the satellites into a safe mode so that they could edge-on would fly, more or less like a sheet of paper with the goal of minimizing drag. The idea was that that would provide a kind of cover for the storm.

The launch in question was on February 3. Then 49 Starlink satellites were launched by a Falcon 9 rocket. These satellites were dropped off at an altitude of about 210km above the earth. That went well for a while, but right on the day of the launch, the satellites encountered a geomagnetic storm. According to GPS data, the severity of the storm led to 50 percent more atmospheric drag than during previous launches.

The company says the 40 satellites likely to fall back into the atmosphere pose no risk of collision with other satellites. SpaceX says the satellites are designed to decay once they re-enter the atmosphere. That should also prevent debris from forming or parts of the satellites from hitting the ground.

SpaceX is not yet giving information on the exact number of satellites lost; that is probably related to the fact that not all of the lost satellites have actually burned up in the atmosphere yet.