Space Weather took out 40 SpaceX Satellites

Dozens of little Satellites are falling from the sky this week. A geomagnetic storm – disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field – has doomed up to 40 of SpaceX’s 49 small Starlink launched to low Earth orbit on Feb. 3, EarthSky and the Associated Press reported.

The Satellites have either burned up while reentering our atmosphere, or were just about to, SpaceX said this week. It’s uncertain where and when they would reenter. The recent batch of Satellites launched was part of SpaceX’s plan to put thousands of Starlink Satellites into space for global internet access.

The hit to this newest fleet began last Friday when a geomagnetic storm made the Earth’s atmosphere denser. This increased the drag on the little Starlink. Controllers on the ground tried to put them in hibernation mode, but could not. The Satellites were not able to get into a more stable orbit.