Elon Musk's satellite internet service, Starlink, has lost dozens of new satellites in a solar storm.
As many as 40 of the total 49 new satellites launched in early February were reported to have crashed due to the solar storm.
The 49 new satellites belonging to Starlink are planned to join 1,925 other Starlink satellites in orbit. These 49 additional satellites were launched to increase the availability of Starlink internet access.
According to the Time report, the 40 satellites crashed because Starlink ignored warnings from the United States Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
On January 29, 2022, the SWPC warned of an impending solar storm of "moderate" severity.
A solar storm itself is an event in the form of an explosion or release of energy in the sun on a large scale.
SWPC researchers estimate the solar storm will reach Earth's atmosphere around February 2-3, 2022.
When it reaches Earth, in theory, the atmosphere will experience disturbances. Solar storms can cause disruptions in the atmosphere, especially in the ionosphere.
Despite the warning, Starlink is still "stubborn", launching its 49 new satellites according to the previous schedule, namely February 3, 2022, or at the same time when a solar storm is predicted to reach Earth's atmosphere.
On Thursday, February 3, 2022, a rocket made by Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) company Falcon 9 carried and launched 49 Starlink satellites into low-earth-orbit (LEO).
Starlink satellites are usually placed in LEO, about 210 km above Earth.
However, during the deployment process, the 49 satellites carried by Falcon 9 experienced greater air resistance than usual when about 209 km above Earth.
This air resistance causes the satellite to return to Earth instead of reaching its proper position at 210 km above Earth.
This greater air resistance seems to be the effect of the solar storm.
Finally, SpaceX reportedly activated safe mode on 49 of those Starlink satellites.
"The Starlink team ordered the satellites into safe mode where they would fly (like a piece of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively 'shelter from the storm,'" SpaceX said.
However, the safe mode was only able to save nine satellites. At the same time, the remaining 40 satellites could not survive the storm and fell into Earth's atmosphere.
According to time, the 40 Starlink satellites will burn up when they enter Earth's atmosphere.
As the company that oversees Starlink, SpaceX praises itself for successfully handling the problem of the crash of these 40 satellites with minimal risk so that it does not impact other satellites, as well as people or property on Earth.
The United States space agency NASA itself is still silent about the crash of the 40 Starlink satellites.
However, on February 7, 2022, NASA wrote five letters to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), compiled by KompasTekno from Time, Wednesday (16/2/2022).
The letter explained NASA's concerns about the Starlink internet service as a whole, especially about Elon Musk's company's plans to launch a total of more than 30,000 satellites for the Starlink service.
NASA is concerned that the 30,000 Starlink satellites will increase the risk of collisions between satellites and other objects in low-Earth orbit, including manned spacecraft.
In addition, NASA is also concerned that the 30,000 satellites launched for the Starlink service will interfere with atmospheric observations.