{"id":58882,"date":"2022-02-14T05:04:01","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T18:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=58882"},"modified":"2022-02-14T05:04:01","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T18:34:01","slug":"solar-storm-starlink-2353","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/solar-storm-starlink-2353\/","title":{"rendered":"Solar Storm Scuttles SpaceX Starlink Satellites"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX

Image: Sociedad de Astronom\u00eda del Caribe<\/p><\/div>\n

Our Sun recently showed SpaceX boss Elon Musk who’s in charge, with a burst of solar energy taking out dozens of Starlink satellites. <\/p>\n

Among SpaceX’s various activities is the creation of a satellite network, or “constellation”, to deliver broadband services across the world. Starlink<\/a> satellites weigh approximately 260 kilograms each and are powered by solar panels. Around 2,000 have been launched to date – and the company intends deploying a couple thousand more.<\/p>\n

The satellites operate at an altitude of 550 kilometres, but are first deployed at 210 kilometres where they undergo testing before being sent on their way.\u00a0<\/span> Dud satellites are quickly “deorbited” by atmospheric drag.<\/p>\n

Stormy Solar Weather Forecast Ignored?<\/h2>\n

On Thursday, February 3, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Apparently this wasn’t the best day to do so.<\/p>\n

SQ’s Ronald<\/a> commented:<\/p>\n

“..they were warned about the danger and launched anyway. Sounds stupid, but maybe they crunched the numbers and it was a sensible choice given the information they had. Or maybe they were idiots. Both possibilities fit the information I have.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The danger was a geomagnetic storm<\/a>, which is a disturbance in Earth’s magnetosphere created by charged particles originating from the upper atmosphere of Sun, known as “solar wind”. Like winds here on Earth, they vary in intensity and in recent times the Sun has been more active in generating solar storms.<\/p>\n

On Friday, January 4, disaster struck SpaceX when forecast storms hit.<\/p>\n

“These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase,” said SpaceX<\/a> in an update last week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The company said drag was up to 50 percent greater than during previous launches<\/p>\n

While the team put the satellites into safe-mode to have them fly edge-on to minimise drag, the craft were unable to exit this mode and 40 reportedly burned up in the atmosphere. SpaceX says given their design,\u00a0 no orbital debris was created and no satellite bits would have wound up on the ground (or embedded in anyone’s head).<\/p>\n

In an attempt to make lemonade from lemons, SpaceX stated:<\/p>\n

“This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

… but perhaps a few choice words were uttered at SpaceX HQ when they realised they may also be on the leading edge of Elon’s wrath and wind up like Neuralink monkeys<\/a> (unless he was behind pushing ahead with the mission).<\/p>\n

So, Why Take The Risk?<\/h2>\n

Starlink satellites are an expensive bit of kit, but so is rescheduling launches, which would have come into play in weighing up a decision to proceed or abort.<\/p>\n

Ronald pointed out there may have also been some added incentive to proceed. For example, Tonga’s<\/a> fibre optic cable is out of action and being able to provide good satellite broadband service would have been a huge public relations success for SpaceX and Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

This theory isn’t based on anything Ronald had heard or read; it just sprang to mind.<\/p>\n

The following video is claimed to be footage of the Starlink satellites burning up over Puerto Rico. Things get pretty spectacular around the 30 second mark.<\/p>\n