A magnetic storm has destroyed nearly all of a cluster of Starlink satellites launched last week by SpaceX. A launch for nothing.
Incredible but true. 40 SpaceX satellites, deployed to join the Starlink constellation, were destroyed by a geomagnetic storm. They had been launched within a cluster of 49 satellites and released at an altitude of 210 km on February 3. This magnetic storm, linked to variations in solar activity, surprised the company, the fault of a phenomenon more powerful than those usually observed during launches.
SpaceX explains: “Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms are causing the atmosphere to heat up and atmospheric density to increase at our lower deployment altitudes. climbing and the severity of the storm resulted in an increase in atmospheric drag up to 50% greater than previous launches.”
And despite efforts to navigate the satellites remotely, at least 40 of them were lost. They will end their life disintegrated on entering the Earth’s atmosphere. “De-orbited satellites pose no risk of collision with other satellites and, by design, disappear upon re-entry into the atmosphere, which means no orbital debris is created and no part of the satellite touch the ground”reassures the company.
SpaceX already has more than 2,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and plans to launch more than 10,000, so those 40 lost craft aren’t critical to the service. On the other hand, they represent a dead loss for the American firm, each satellite launch operated by a Falcon 9 rocket costing millions of dollars.