SpaceX will lose up to 40 of the satellites it just launched due to a solar storm

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Up to 40 satellites from SpaceX’s Starlink project are expected to de-orbit thanks to a bad timing.

The company launched the satellites directly into a solar storm.

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A batch of 49 Internet satellites from the Starlink project followed in SpaceX’s most recent launch on February 3, and now the company predicts losing most thanks to a space weather event known as a geomagnetic storm. This event happens when streams of charged particles, or solar winds, emitted by the Sun interact with Earth’s magnetic field. The energy-charged particles can heat the upper atmosphere, causing it to become thicker. (Yes, there is still atmosphere in areas of outer space closer to Earth. The Earth’s atmosphere disappears over thousands of kilometers.)

In this case, the storm affected the area of ​​orbit where SpaceX’s latest Starlink project satellites were launched, and made the atmosphere dense enough that the satellites could not maneuver into their intended orbit.

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The extent of the financial impact is not well known. SpaceX has not disclosed how much it costs to build a Starlink project satellite, although company president Gwynne Shotwell said in 2019 that the price was well below the million dollars per satellite.

The satellites that SpaceX launched last week were expected to join the roughly 2,000 Starlink satellites already in orbit, in a project by the company to dramatically increase its Internet business globally, a first-of-its-kind venture that aims to enable all people, even those in the most remote areas of the world, can have high-speed Internet access.

SpaceX said it will likely need up to 42,000 satellites, all working in coordination, with the aim of providing uninterrupted, high-speed service. In January, the service had around 145,000 users in 25 countries.

It’s not entirely clear how SpaceX assessed the weather in space ahead of last week’s launch. The company did not respond to a request for comment and rarely responds to journalists’ questions.

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But rocket launches have already been delayed because of space weather events, said Bill Murtagh, program coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center. And those responsible for the launches are always attentive to the space weather, before the launch of the rockets.

“Different companies have different criteria” for deciding whether or not a space weather event will affect their launch, Murtagh added.

James Spann, head of space weather at NASA’s Sun department, also said it was difficult to predict exactly how a geomagnetic storm like this one would affect Starlink. As the storm was not very severe, it is not unreasonable to think that it would have no impact on the launch.

And while the loss of 40 satellites is not ideal, Spann stressed that the data that NASA and NOAA will obtain from observing the behavior of Starlink satellites in the face of the storm will help improve the creation of space weather models in the future.

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“That’s the good side”he told CNN Business. “We will use the data to ensure that, in the future, the chances of success are even better than they are now.”

Still, GPS data from Starlink satellites “suggest that the increased speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric resistance to become up to 50% greater than in previous launches,” SpaceX wrote in an update on its website. “The Starlink team commanded the satellites in safe mode, where they would fly in profile (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag – to effectively ‘protect themselves from the storm’,” the company says.

But early data suggests that the increased resistance caused by the storm prevented the satellites from switching off safe mode and “up to 40 of the satellites will re-enter – or have already done so – into Earth’s atmosphere,” the SpaceX publication says.

The company stressed that the failed satellites must not pose any risk to other satellites during descent, and must disintegrate when they reach the thickest part of the Earth’s atmosphere, lest they pose a risk to people or property on the ground.

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All these security measures are designed from the ground up, the company said. SpaceX said it intentionally places its Starlink satellites at a lower altitude than the intended orbit so that, in the event of a satellite failure, it does not fly unchecked in orbit for too long — a major effort in mitigating space debris.

But the launch at lower altitudes could also be one of the main reasons these Starlink satellites were so affected by the geomagnetic storm.

In a new statement to the Federal Communications Commission, which must approve the launch of the satellites, NASA expressed concern that the large number of satellites that SpaceX proposes to launch could become a threat to the International Space Station and other important assets in the space. space.

the space weather

Every decade or so, the Sun completes a solar cycle of calm and stormy activity, and starts a new one.

Events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) – when the Sun’s outermost atmosphere spits out plasma and magnetic fields – can impact electrical grids, satellites, GPS, airlines, rockets and astronauts. in space.

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Space weather is known to disrupt terrestrial communication systems by affecting radio frequencies.

Our current solar cycle, Solar Cycle 25, officially started in December 2019. We are currently emerging from a period of relative calm and the current cycle is expected to reach its most active phase in 2025.

On a scale of one to five, the geomagnetic storm that affected the Starlink satellites last week was a two, which is pretty mild, Murtagh said. The Sun causes “several hundred” storms of this magnitude every 11-year solar cycle, Murtagh said.

“A beautiful visible manifestation [do clima espacial] it’s the aurora borealis, which everyone loves. That’s the nice and beautiful part. But the consequences, as we have now discovered, can be quite significant for some technologies,” said Murtagh.

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