SpaceX has lost forty satellites that they recently launched due to an unexpected geomagnetic storm.
On February 3, the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launched forty-nine new satellites into low-Earth orbit in support of Starlink, the company’s global internet service. A total of forty of them have been knocked out of commission and are soon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
According to SpaceX, a geomagnetic storm causes the atmosphere to be warm and atmospheric density at their low deployment altitudes to increase. The GPS technology onboard the satellites suggests that the escalation speed and severity of the storm had caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50% higher than previous launches.
The Starlink team was able to command the satellites into a safe mode where they could guide the satellites “edge-on” to the storm, like a sheet of paper so that they could minimize the drag. The procedure ensures that the satellites effectively take cover from the storm.
The satellites that are currently deorbiting are of no collision risk with other satellites and are supposed to completely dissipate upon reentry into the atmosphere, which means no debris or parts remaining in orbit or hitting the ground, SpaceX says.
The altitude that SpaceX launched the satellites was chosen in part to prevent potential collisions with other future satellites since there’s already a total of 1,915 satellites in orbit so far. The problem is that solar outbursts and geomagnetic storms pose a higher risk to objects that are in low-Earth orbit, which is why most satellites orbit at higher altitudes.
In December 2019, the sun started a new 11-year solar cycle that is now gearing up to a “solar maximum” expected to hit in 2025, which could cause problems for more satellites in the future if not resolved. A solar maximum describes a period in which the sun has its most significant solar activity during its 11-year cycle.
Nonetheless, SpaceX credits the Starlink team for alleviating any extra or unnecessary damage that the geomagnetic storm could have potentially caused. “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,” said the company in a statement.