New Delhi: SpaceX confirmed that a solar storm occurred on Friday, causing the company a loss of 40 out of its recently launched 49 Starlink satellites.
Elon Musk owned SpaceX confirmed that 80% of the satellites it launched last week are expected to burn instead of reaching orbit. These satellites were launched into low-Earth orbit on February 3 from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
The company released a statement following the incident which read, “unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday.”
It further added: “These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase.”
Those satellites that suffered due to the solar storm were in a temporary position. The company reported that there is no danger from these falling satellites either in the orbit or on the ground.
The storm was caused due to the speed and severity of the storm which resulted in an “atmospheric drag”. SpaceX revealed that this was 50% higher than during the previous launch. The company has incurred a huge loss over this.
Each satellite under the Starlink project provides new global internet service, the cost of the same is more than $250,000. This leaves Musk’s company with a loss of at least $10 million along with the estimated $15 million to replace them, according to The Times.
At the moment, close to 2,000 Starlink satellites are orbiting the Earth to provide internet services globally and Musk has US permission to create a constellation of 12,000 such satellites.