US space technology company SpaceX, which last week sent to Earth’s lower orbit 49 satellites as part of its growing Starlite internet satellite network, has announced that up to 80% of them will be destroyed after a geomagnetic storm, British news portal The Guardian reports.
As part of the company’s effort to deploy thousands of Starlite satellites to establish satellite internet coverage in the most part of the surface of the Earth, SpaceX launched the satellites into low-Earth orbit on February 3 from a US space centre, but 80% 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.» Due to the storm, the satellites failed to carry out the manoeuvres required to reach their required orbit.
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 Guardian reports.
SpaceX announces losing dozens of internet satellites after Sun storm
