I believe many people have seen that the 49 satellites launched by the US Space Exploration Technology Company at once were unexpectedly hit by solar storms. According to the news released by the Associated Press, at least 40 of these satellites that have recently been launched will enter the atmosphere and be burned after leaving the normal orbit, which is also the largest scale of damage caused by geomagnetic storms in history! The burned "starlink" moons swept across the night sky like a meteor shower.
Some people should remember that the satellites that almost endangered the safety of the mainland's Tiangong space station twice a while ago came from this space exploration technology company, and fortunately, the astronauts escaped the danger by emergency avoidance. Therefore, when you see dozens of satellite accidents, it is inevitable to worry about whether satellite debris will affect other satellites in orbit and the operation of our space station. The U.S. satellite launcher has explained that the burned satellites this time are not heavy, and the single satellite is less than 260 kilograms, and said that it will not pose a threat to the operation of other spacecraft.
Speaking of which, some people may wonder that solar storms are a common natural phenomenon, and the reason why it will cause damage to satellites is mainly because such explosive activities will cause disturbances to solar-terrestrial space.
In fact, the U.S. Space Weather Forecast Center has predicted that there may be a solar flare activity on January 29, and the intensity is not small, and the time when these energies and materials reach the earth should be around February 1, and this solar storm is likely to last until February 3 after causing a geomagnetic storm.
On the other hand, the U.S. Astra rocket launch also failed, there were originally 4 satellites will be launched through the LV0008 carrier rocket, but the 13-meter-long carrier rocket did not send the satellite to the intended orbit as planned, and the owner of the four satellites is NASA, just took off when it was in good condition, but in just 3 minutes after the abnormality, the air rotation makes people look a little strange, and then the second stage separation began to rotate.
However, everyone does not have to worry, since the de-orbiting starlink satellites will not endanger the safety of the Chinese space station, then these satellites that have not yet been successfully launched are naturally even less likely to affect the Chinese space station!
At present, the launcher has confirmed that the mission has indeed failed, did not send the 4 NASA satellites to the sky, and will investigate the cause of the accident later, and will give a more detailed explanation after all the data are reviewed. However, after this incident, the owner of the satellite is very generous, NASA said that the dedication of the rocket company is worthy of recognition, as long as the lessons learned from the accident and better complete the follow-up launch mission.
In fact, Astra, a private rocket company, is not large in scale and was not established early, from 2016 to the mission before this mission, there were only four space orbit launches, and the launch site was Alaska, the United States. Moreover, there was only one successful launch, that is, last year, when the launch vehicle used was LV0007.
Relevant information shows that the four satellites that disappeared this time are focused on educational research, mainly including three aspects, namely the quantitative impact of quantum gyroscopes, improving weather models and verifying the reduction of space debris. In addition to this launch mission, Astra has a satellite launch mission in 2022, and whether it will succeed next time will be known at that time.
All in all, 4 satellites that failed to launch, plus 40 satellites burned, at least 44 satellites in the United States were wiped out, and it is necessary to know that the development of the space industry, in addition to being inseparable from talent and technology, the cost is also a very important aspect. There is no suspense, the manufacturing cost of these more than forty satellites should not be underestimated, to know that a starlink satellite was burned, the direct cost loss reached nearly 500,000 US dollars, that is to say, only the loss of the satellite itself, directly calculated out of hundreds of millions of yuan. This has not yet calculated the loss of communication, as well as other invisible losses, and it can be said that it is not yet calculated.
Therefore, the mainland's willingness to spend a lot of money to build the Chinese space station and then allow countries that have passed the audit to join the Chinese space station can be said to be a particularly remarkable thing, including the fact that many people know that The Chinese Sky Eye is open to scientists around the world. In recent years, the rapid development of the mainland in the field of aerospace is obvious to all, from soft landing to the far side of the moon, from the moon to bring back samples, to the successful landing of the probe on Mars, the orderly construction of the space station, we are fortunate to witness the daily growth of China's space industry.