Fiery death of SpaceX Starlink satellites captured on video after geomagnetic storm
The dramatic final moments of a young Starlink satellite's life were captured on video.
A dramatic video serves as a memorial to a star-crossed satellite that lived fast and died very young.
SpaceX launched 49 satellites to low Earth orbit on Feb. 3 to further beef up the company's huge and growing Starlink internet megaconstellation. But most of those newly lofted spacecraft will never beam any broadband signals down, thanks to a powerful sun eruption.
Charged particles from that solar blast spawned a geomagnetic storm on Feb. 4, substantially increasing the density of Earth's atmosphere and thus the drag experienced by the new, low-flying Starlink batch, SpaceX representatives reported on Tuesday (Feb. 8).
As a result, up to 40 of the 49 satellites are expected to come crashing back to Earth over the coming days.
Solar storm knocks out 40 newly launched SpaceX satellites
A geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun has disabled least 40 of the 49 satellites newly launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network, the company said.
I'LL JUST ASSUME THIS WASN'T CHY-NA.
