Musk's starchain suffered a major setback: 49 new satellites were launched, and 40 were scrapped by geomagnetic storms

Per Edit: Golden Dark Feather

According to China News Agency, the US Space Exploration Technology Corporation (SpaceX) released a statement on its official website on the evening of the 8th local time, saying that due to the impact of the geomagnetic storm, as many as 40 of the company's latest batch of 49 "Starlink" satellites will be scrapped.

SpaceX said in a statement that on Feb. 3, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starchain satellites at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The rocket sends the satellites into a predetermined orbit, with a perigee altitude of about 210 kilometers, and each satellite achieves a controlled flight.

Screenshot of the announcement on SpaceX's official website

However, the satellites were severely affected by geomagnetic storms the day after launch. The storm caused an increase in the density of the atmosphere at the low deployment altitude where the satellite was located. Airborne GPS shows that atmospheric resistance at this altitude is 50% higher than when launched. SpaceX said in a statement that the StarLink team controlled the satellite into safe mode, taking "flanking flight" to minimize drag and avoid the storm. Preliminary analysis shows that up to 40 satellites "will re-enter or have re-entered" the Earth's atmosphere due to increased resistance during low-altitude flights, which prevent satellites from deviating from safe mode for orbital lifting operations.

The China News Agency quoted the Associated Press as saying that the scrapped satellites weighed less than 260 kilograms. SpaceX said the de-orbiting satellites had zero risk of colliding with other satellites. And by design, once it enters the atmosphere, the satellite burns up. That means the end-of-life process won't produce orbital debris and satellite parts won't hit the ground, the company said.

According to reference news, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics physicist Jonathan McDowell said on the 9th local time that this event is considered to be the largest satellite collective loss caused by a single geomagnetic event.

Notably, the wreckage of satellites and rockets launched by SpaceX in recent years has repeatedly posed a threat to other countries' spacecraft, and there are concerns that the company's brutal behavior in the space field may lead to a sharp increase in the amount of space junk in Earth's orbit.

Daily economic news is synthesized from China News Agency, reference news

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