Satellites destroyed by the sun the majority of the Starlink satellites launched last Friday were destroyed by a geomagnetic storm. According to SpaceX, the satellites were damaged by the sun.
The Starlink satellites were launched on Feb. 3 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with an intended orbit of 130 miles above Earth.
The storm, caused by solar activity, made the Earth’s atmosphere warm and expanded.
“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday,” the statement said
, and the satellites were destroyed by the .sun
The company has already launched 2,000 satellites and has permission from the US authorities to send up to 12,000.
What is Starlink (SpaceX)?
Starlink (SpaceX) is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access to 34 countries.
It aims for global coverage. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of July 2022, Starlink consists of over 2,500 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO),
communicating with designated ground transceivers. Starlink provides internet access to over 400,000 subscribers as of May 2022
The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and orbit control teams.
The cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX
in May 2018 to be at least US$10 billion.
In February 2017, documents indicated that SpaceX expects more than $30 billion in revenue by 2025 from its satellite constellation,
while revenues from its launch business were expected to reach $5 billion in the same year.
On Oct. 15 2019, the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) submitted filings to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
on SpaceX’s behalf to arrange a spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites to supplement the 12,000
Starlink satellites have already been approved by the FCC.
Astronomers have raised concerns about the constellations’ effect on ground-based astronomy
and how the satellites will add to an already congested orbital environment.
SpaceX has attempted to mitigate astronomy concerns by implementing several upgrades to Starlink satellites aimed at reducing their brightness during operation.
