Musk throws trash into space? Recently, Musk's "Starlink Satellite" stall has been in trouble.
Musk's SpaceX company suffered geomagnetic storms on Feb. 3 from 49 Starlink satellites launched on the Falcon 9 rocket, and as many as 40 of them were destroyed the next day, the largest damage caused to the satellites by a single geomagnetic storm.
Debris like a meteor shower across the night sky, or satellite rain?
49 new satellites and 40 were scrapped
Musk throws garbage into space?
China News Service reported on February 10 that the Us Space Exploration Technology Corporation (SpaceX) released a statement on its official website saying:
On February 3, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 49 Starlink 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.
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.
Synthesized from: CCTV News, Xinhua News Agency, China News Agency, Surging News
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