While beaming the internet from space may sound like a really good idea, there are a few drawbacks. Like when space decides to do… space things. Like solar flares. Or geomagnetic storms. The latter apparently took out around 40 of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites recently.
SpaceX’s very own shooting stars
The satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and essentially disintegrate into nothing, even before we can get a glimpse of the catastrophic failure. Of course, this is will only affect a fraction of the company’s 2,000+ Starlink satellites sitting in low-Earth orbit.
SpaceX sent 49 satellites up via a routine Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Centre last week. This was followed by a geomagnetic storm – which is caused by solar winds – which pushed the satellites back into our planet’s atmosphere. These kinds of storms regularly affect satellites, knocking them around, increasing atmospheric drag, and rerouting their orbits.
The company realised its newly launched satellites were bound to be hit by the storm and pre-empted it by enabling safe mode to try and “take cover from the storm.” It now looks like they never came out of safe mode, so it’s safe to assume that they’re… hurtling back toward Earth.
SpaceX confirmed as much, saying that the satellites will “reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere” yesterday. They’ll reportedly burn out so quickly that no debris will make it to the surface. The company also maintains that they pose no threat to other satellites.
Source: CNET