SpaceX is to lose up to 40 of the 49 Starlink satellites it launched last week as a result of a geomagnetic storm, the company has announced.
Elon Musk’s firm launched the satellites into low-Earth orbit on Thursday last week from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, but 80 percent of them are now expected to burn up instead of reaching their intended orbit.
“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.”
The speed and severity of the storm resulted in an “atmospheric drag” that was up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches, it said.
Geomagnetic storms are the result of interactions between solar wind — a stream of charged particles from the sun — and the Earth’s magnetic field.
Although the satellites were commanded to “take cover from the storm” by flying “edge-on [like a sheet of paper],” they failed to carry out the maneuvers required to reach their required orbit.
“Up to 40 of the satellites will re-enter or already have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere,” the firm said. “The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites.”
The Starlink satellites are designed to disintegrate upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the company said, “meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground.”
SpaceX has already launched 2,000 Starlink satellites and has permission from US authorities to send up 12,000 in total.
The network has drawn growing concern from astronomers, who fear a “megaconstellation” of tens of thousands of satellites could blight the night sky and hamper scientists’ ability to study the distant universe.
European Space Agency Director-General Josef Aschbacher said in December that Musk was “making the rules” in space, and called for coordinated action from the EU to ensure that SpaceX’s satellite Internet constellation did not prevent other countries from launching their own satellites.
In the same month, China accused the US of ignoring international treaty obligations after two “close encounters” in which the Chinese space station was forced to maneuver to avoid collisions with Starlink satellites.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS