Geomagnetic storm destroys 40 Starlink satellites; Elon Musk’s company says no risk to Earth

A geomagnetic storm has knocked up to 40 out of 49 SpaceX high-speed internet satellites on February 4, a day after they were launched to a low deployment orbit, 130 miles above Earth.

The incident was believed to mark the largest collective loss of satellites stemming from a single geomagnetic event and was unique in the way it unfolded, Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said on Wednesday.

Elon Musk’s company has issued a statement saying that there is “virtually” no risk as the satellites are built without any dense metallic components and should burn up entirely without pushing anything down on Earth.

Here’s what happened:

These 49 satellites were launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on February 3 and were placed at their initial orbit, closer to Earth. The company said it places the satellites at a nearby orbit to carry out final checks before flying them into space.

On February 4, around 40 of them were struck by a geomagnetic storm. which is a space weather event, caused by ejections of the solar corona into space, leading to disturbances to the Earth’s upper atmosphere and increased drag on objects in low orbits.

As the geomagnetic storm struck the satellites, the Starlink team moved to action and brought the satellites into a safe mode but 40 satellites were unable to raise their orbits.

The company said there is “zero collision risk” with other satellites as 40 satellites are reentering or already entered Earth’s atmosphere. No debris is expected to hit the ground.

Here is the complete statement from SpaceX

“On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.

“SpaceX deploys its satellites into these lower orbits so that in the very rare case any satellite does not pass initial system checkouts it will quickly be deorbited by atmospheric drag. While the low deployment altitude requires more capable satellites at a considerable cost to us, it’s the right thing to do to maintain a sustainable space environment.

“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively “take cover from the storm”—and continued to work closely with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.

“Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground. 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.”