A geomagnetic storm has destroyed at least 40 brand new satellites of Elon Musk’s satellite Internet business Starlink. It makes up around 80% of the 49 satellites.
On February 3, the company launched 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The corporation claimed in a statement late Tuesday that the storm’s escalation pace and severity caused atmospheric drag to increase by up to 50% compared to prior launches.
“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday,” SpaceX said in a statement.
“These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase.”
“Preliminary analysis shows 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,” it added.
The Sun has fired off a filament eruption as solar activity surges. It will hit the Earth on Wednesday and Thursday, producing another geomagnetic storm.
According to models developed by the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research’s Center of Excellence in Space Sciences, a substance flying past our planet at a speed of 21,60,000 kilometers per hour (451-615 kilometers per second) has a very high chance of impacting the Earth.
No expectation that the impact will be dangerous
There is, however, no expectation that the impact will be dangerous. “The impact is unlikely to be very hazardous. Moderate geomagnetic storms are likely,” CESS also said in a tweet.
De-orbiting satellites pose “zero collision risk” with other satellites and by design disintegrate upon atmospheric descent. Thereby, resulting in no orbital debris and no satellite parts hitting the earth as per the company.
“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.”
CMEs (coronal mass ejections) are enormous ejections of plasma and magnetic fields from the Sun’s corona. They have the ability to expel billions of tons of coronal material as they travel outward from the Sun at speeds ranging from less than 250 km/s to almost 3000 km/s.
A geomagnetic storm occurs when a CME collides with the Earth.
CMEs to Earth can reach Earth in 15-18 hours if they are rapid enough, according to the NOAA.
SpaceX recently passed the 2,000 satellite launch mark. The company also wants to launch a total of 12,000 satellites to bring cheaper internet access all over the world.