In an expensive blow to SpaceX, forty of the forty-nine Starlink satellites it launched on February 3rd will be destroyed because of a geomagnetic storm. According to the company, the storm caused “up to 50 percent higher drag than during previous launches.” This has hindered the newly deployed satellites from reaching their proper orbit around the Earth. There is no way of saving them, and they will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere instead of reaching their destinations.
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SpaceX is planning to launch upwards of 12,000 satellites into orbit in order to link up and cover the entire planet with fast, reliable internet. They have recently crossed the 2,000 mark, so forty isn’t a massive amount of satellites to lose. However, taking into account the cost of launching a single Falcon 9 rocket, as well as its longevity being influenced, it’s still a major loss.
Here is the full statement from SpaceX:
On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.
SpaceX deploys its satellites into these lower obits so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag. While the low deployment altitude requires more capable satellites at a considerable cost to us, it’s the right thing to do to maintain a sustainable space environment.
Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. 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. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively “take cover from the storm”—and continued to work closely with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.
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. 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.
