[BRV]

Starlink Satellites owned by SpaceX got affected due to geomagnetic storm and loss is estimated ~40 satellites.

The company said that since the satellites did not come out of the safe mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, up to 40 of the satellites "will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere" and disintegrated.

Link:https://www.indiatoday.in/science/st...648-2022-02-09

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/ne...oss-40-2758181

@Mods: Couldn't find a thread related to Starlink. Please merge if we have one. Thanks in Advance

[condor]

That's some serious loss for Space-X. Had to read the articles in the link to confirm that loss meant loss, and not just temporary loss in function. But at least they are re-entering and disintegrating than sitting out there as space junk.

[libranof1987]

Wow, that is quite a development. Here's an article that talks about how/why this happens.

SpaceX confirmed on Tuesday that up to 40 of the 49 Starlink low-earth orbit satellites launched last 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," SpaceX explained in an update.

"In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50% higher than during previous launches."

https://www.zdnet.com/article/geomag...nk-satellites/

[BRV]

This is going to be risk in future for SpaceX as solar storms keep coming (never know when). For now the satellites didn't pose any problem for other satellites by becoming space junk (already we have enough )

Scenario: Once they have all the satellites in place and all those depending on Starlink network will have issues whenever they lose satellites for solar storms and that's gonna cost a lot to the company as well. Hope SpaceX accounts for such scenarios.

[.sushilkumar]

Originally Posted by BRV

This is going to be risk in future for SpaceX as solar storms keep coming (never know when). For now the satellites didn't pose any problem for other satellites by becoming space junk (already we have enough )

FYI - No space junk is created off these starlink satellites. They are in low earth Orbit from where they enter earth,s atmosphere and get burned while re-entry.

Quoting from

https://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/ne...oss-40-2758181

The Musk-owned aerospace firm, however, stated that there appeared “zero collision risk” of these satellites with others. It also said its satellites would “demise upon atmospheric reentry,” meaning no debris will be created and no satellite parts would hit Earth

[Sarath_]

Just saw a very interesting take on the starlink constellation. Although some of the date seems too biased against Musk, there are some good parts in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vuMzGhc1cg&t=1671s