Solar Storm Destroys Elon Musk's 38 Starlink Satellites, Estimated Loss Of Millions Of Dollars

Starlink satellites when launched into space. (photo: twitter @spacex)

JAKARTA - An explosion or solar storm earlier this year destroyed 38 of Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, costing his company tens of millions of dollars.

SpaceX launched 49 low-latency internet satellites into space from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on February 3, seemingly without incident at first. At about the same time, a huge wave of solar particles and radiation swept across the Earth.

The waves are triggered by explosions on the sun's surface called solar flares or coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which are part of space weather.

Upon reaching planet Earth, solar matter heats our atmosphere and increases the density of a small amount of air at 130 miles altitude where the Starlink satellite is located.

The tiny satellite was supposed to rise several hundred miles higher, but that's not the case because of increased atmospheric drag by at least 60 percent, according to a study from US and Chinese researchers.

"This event raises urgent requirements for a better understanding and accurate prediction of space weather and collaboration between industry and the space weather community," the researchers wrote, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

Thirty-eight Starlink satellites sank deeper, before burning up at thousands of miles per hour.

The study also found that SpaceX's economic losses from solar storms would be several tens of millions of dollars.

"We have illustrated solar eruptions, solar wind propagation, and increased atmospheric density, using observed data and model simulations," the study said. Nonetheless, the satellites, which weigh about 570 pounds each, pose no danger to anyone on the ground.

"The non-orbiting satellites pose zero risk of collision with other satellites and are by design dead on re-entry to the atmosphere meaning no orbital debris is created and no part of the satellite hits the ground," SpaceX said in a statement at the time.

SpaceX has more than 3,000 satellites in orbit and plans to launch thousands more.

On September 10, Musk's company also launched 34 Starlink satellites into orbit aboard the Falcon 9 that took off from the Kennedy Space Center.