Sent into orbit between 2019 and 2020, these units of first generation of Starlink are not broken and working well. SpaceX has identified a potential fault and will send them to disintegrate in the atmosphere within six months. The company, often criticized, takes the opportunity to reiterate its commitments.
This is a move that will benefit all low-orbit satellite operators. On February 13, SpaceX issued a press release explaining that 100 Starlink satellites would be gradually decommissioned over a period of six months, while they are active within the connectivity constellation. These satellites are maneuverable and still effective, but SpaceX teams have identified a potential flaw, which could lead to significant failures in the future. The operator therefore decided to remove them preventively, both to avoid a potential catastrophe (the management of the mesh and collision avoidance really does not need to have 100 more very large pieces of debris to manage ), but also so that these units remain under their responsibility for a shorter period of time.
Responsible behavior?
SpaceX currently reports 17 satellites drifting in orbit because they are out of order, and the company apparently takes safety very seriously, tracking their positions and publishing their ephemeris very regularly so they don’t cause problems. If it breaks down at an altitude of 550 km, a Starlink satellite theoretically takes between 3 and 5 years to disintegrate in the atmosphere if it is not maneuvering.
The Californian firm is also implementing a whole series of measures to preserve both its satellites and others, necessary when you have 5,438 active satellites within a mesh with different layers! In addition to well-known measures such as anti-reflection devices to avoid “streaks”, these features on astrophotography poses, (with still limited effectiveness), SpaceX broadcasts the positions and movements of its satellites and works with a company specializing in the observation of traffic and debris in orbit (Leolabs) to maneuver its satellites.
100 retired, a few thousand waiting
This early retirement of around a hundred satellites will have no effect on customer connectivity. Being first generation units, they were not equipped with inter-satellite laser links or transponders as sophisticated as those that SpaceX is currently deploying. The company specifies that it is capable of assembling up to 50 Starlink “V2 Mini” per week and 200 per month.
Note that the publication of this press release caused a lot of talk on social networks and in the space community… Not for these 100 satellites, but for the photograph which accompanied the declaration on X.com. Indeed, no offense to the conspiracy theorists who see doctored photos everywhere, it is in reality very rare to see photographic montages in space communication in 2024.
However, this is the technique that SpaceX used, superimposing a photo of a Starlink batch before it was put under the hood and an HD image photographed from the ISS by an astronaut in the Cupola. Internet users specializing in images (and Dave McLean in particular) did not take long to find the original photos.
Source : Space News
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