Video follows below. As many as 40 Starlink satellites are currently falling out of the sky–the surprising result of a minor geomagnetic storm. SpaceX made the announcement yesterday:
“On Thursday, Feb. 3rd at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. … Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday, [Feb. 4th].”
Most of the recent batch of Starlink satellites launched on February 3, 2022, may have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, or will do it soon, as a recent geomagnetic storm prevented the satellites from reaching their intented orbit, SpaceX said.
As of February, over 2,000 Starlink satellites have been launched, as part of a constellation that provides satellite internet access to remote areas, and most of Earth. On February 3, 2022, a Falcon 9 rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral with 49 new Starlink satellites, designated as group G4-7. Soon after the launch, satellite tracking experts suspected something went wrong, as the details of the orbit of these new satellites were not still published. In fact, it’s possible that one or more of the satellites reentered the atmosphere over the Caribbean recently.
This video from cameras that monitor the skies of Puerto Rico, from Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe, shows an interesting event that appears to be related: first, an object is seen disintegrating, with noticeable fragmentation, which is characteristic of space debris. Impressive visuals are seen moments later, as just one minute later, a bigger object is seen in a spectacular disintegration event, and satellite tracking experts agree the event is probably related to the Starlink satellites launched on February 3, 2022.It turns out that a recent solar storm may be responsible.
“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were significantly impacted by a geomagnetic storm on Friday. These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase. In fact, onboard GPS suggests the escalation speed and severity of the storm caused atmospheric drag to increase up to 50 percent higher than during previous launches. The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively “take cover from the storm”—and continued to work closely with the Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron and LeoLabs to provide updates on the satellites based on ground radars.Preliminary analysis show the increased drag at the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving safe-mode to begin orbit raising maneuvers, and up to 40 of the satellites will reenter or already have reentered the Earth’s atmosphere. The deorbiting satellites pose zero collision risk with other satellites and by design demise upon atmospheric reentry—meaning no orbital debris is created and no satellite parts hit the ground.”, SpaceX said in a recent update.
Marco Langbroeg, a satellite tracking expert from the Netherlands, said:
“I did astrometry on the Puerto Rico sighting, and the orbital inclination fits the 53.2 degrees of the Starlink launch. My best guess still remains that this was one of the failed Starlink satellites from Feb 3.”
Each Starlink satellite has a size of 10.5 ft (3.2 meter) x 5.25 ft (1.6 meters) and weights 573 lbs. (260 kilograms). Some of the doomed satellites will be reentering the atmosphere during the next few days, and although it is still uncertain exactly where and when, just in case, keep looking up!
Article by Eddie Irizarry / Sociedad de Astronomia del Caribe (SAC) www.SociedadAstronomia.com
Facebook.com/sociedad.astronomia
It’s obvious we need to do something to stop these geomagnetic storms because they are contributing to global warming. Maybe Greta has some ideas?
Hi Mark
That is not as ‘ridiculous’ comment as may have been intended. However, geomagnetic storms do not contribute to warming but in the winter months cause the stratospheric warming (expansion of stratosphere as mentioned above. The sudden stratospheric warming weakens and splits polar vortex, that in turn loses control of the polar jet stream which then turns from zonal to meandering meridional circulation.
Consequently cold Arctic air moves further south than usual bringing freezing cold weather to greater part of North America’ continent.
Elsewhere warmer subtropical air moves further north so near zero net global temperature effect.
This is as expected since total geomagnetic storms energy is large in terms of total global thermal energy is next to negligent. No energy gained or lost.
As it was often said “It’s sun stultus”
Hi Vuk
It seems to me they admit that this small cme threw an enormous amount of heat TOA. This can change the weather on earth….
‘These storms cause the atmosphere to warm and atmospheric density at our low deployment altitudes to increase.’
That kind of heat produced by the sun is nothing compared to the heat trapped on or by earth due to…..ehhhh….
https://breadonthewater.co.za/2022/01/10/global-warming-due-to-ehhh-global-greening/
Vuk, I would be very much interested to hear your opinion on that?
Still hoping to find someone who agrees with you?
MarkW
Vuk is an old friend of mine from the UK. We used to give old dr Leif Svalgaard a tough time here. Maybe that was before your time here?
Not at all relevant to your greening causing warming nonsense.
I assume you are referring to adiabatic heating.
The solar wind has almost negligible mass. The “heat-content” of it has no effect except to raise the extremely-low density ionosphere a bit higher. That DOES have an effect on very-fast moving, low-orbit objects.
I could not think of anything better for her to do than to scold the sun.
Start by sniffing magnetic vibrations…
Is William Shatner OK?
I still crack up thinking how NASA wants the fittest, smartest and well qualified humans for space travel and old fat Bill Shatner went up no problem.
He’s alright — fortunately didn’t burn up.
A sobering example of space weather at it’s best / worst.
Cool!
More fun than watching burning Teslas.
And a much rarer event 😀
Though exploding Teslas may top both.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/24/tesla-explodes-after-mechanics-charge-man-23k-for-new-battery/
This is somewhat expected behavior of these low cost satellites. They are cheap and fly low and non-rad hard parts and are designed to be easily replaceable mesh and highly available. So bad solar storm knocks a few out you just launch a few more.
It seems to be as bad or worse more often than once a month.
Yeah, but, what happens when we have a big solar storm? I’ll bet that it’ll sweep most of the Starlink constellation away. This might turn out to be the hidden Gotcha that kills the whole idea.
The X1 last October didn’t even result in a slower connection, so I think it will take a pretty big one to do that.
The narrative of a CME knocking out world wide communications or even the electrical grid is being built up. To control the world-have people allow their freedoms to be relinquished, we must be made to live in fear.
There was the cAGW scare, which we all recognise as a hoax. Then it became “climate change” as the narrative started to evaporate-we had to be kept in fear.
Then, there was the scamdemic. Death numbers were inflated by bribes paid to hospitals to record deaths from any causes being recorded as being OF COVID, when they were WITH COVID. Note, the PCR test cannot distinguish between influenza and “the virus.” The test is faulty.
The absurd measures to “combat” the fake crises are designed to totally destroy wealth and entire economies. With total economic collapse, people will relinquish their freedom just to stay alive. Effectively, these hoaxes are to deprive us of our wealth and our liberty. We are being scammed at every turn.
People around the world are waking up to the COVID related scam and are starting to revolt, so even this hyped up propaganda campaign is evaporating.
Trying to start a war has failed, so the mass communication blackout and/or taking down the power grid is the next tactic to keep us in fear.
A couple of quotes from the past, which show this sort of fearmongering to demonstrate that treachery is nothing unique:-
“Those that would trade essential Liberty, to purchase some temporary safety, shall deserve neither Liberty nor Safety and shall receive neither.”-Benjamin Franklin.
“Those that can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”-Voltaire. I think we would all agree that forcing young children to be subjected to untested, experimental drugs when they are not even vulnerable to the disease is an atrocity, especially with the suppression of adverse event recording.
“When injustice becomes Law, Resistance becomes Duty”-Thomas Jefferson.
“Our job is not to wake the sheep,. It is to wake the Lions.”-Thomas Sowell.
“All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”-Edmund Burke.
To that you can add H. L. Mencken’s famous quote: “The whole purpose of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
If you like videos, try this one from Jo’s website, on the posting about the trucker protest convoy:
https://youtu.be/09maaUaRT4M
Regards to all,
Vlad
… and a few more:
“Cowardice asks the question – is it safe? Expediency asks the question – is it politic? Vanity asks the question – is it popular? But conscience asks the question – is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Villainy wears many masks; none so dangerous as the mask of virtue.”
– Washington Irving
“I’ve had my patience tested. I’m negative.”
– Anonymous
“When the Government fears the People, there is Liberty; when the People fear the Government, there is Tyranny.”
T. Jefferson
Err you are aware that when the Soviets let off a high altitude nuclear weapons test the HE EMP burnt out a roughly 500kms length of important buried underground cabling.
You only have to show real ignorance is bliss when you see the massive damage to transformers in Quebec on the occasion of a quite large CME some years ago March 13, 1989.
https://spaceweatherarchive.com/2021/03/12/the-great-quebec-blackout/
“Québec is especially vulnerable. The province sits on an expanse of Precambrian igneous rock that does a poor job conducting electricity. When the March 13th CME arrived, storm currents found a more attractive path in the high-voltage transmission lines of Hydro-Québec.”
After darkness engulfed Quebec, bright auroras spread as far south as Florida, Texas, and Cuba. Reportedly, some onlookers thought they were witnessing a nuclear exchange
Auroras over Pershore, England, during the March 13, 1989, geomagnetic storm.
Catch a falling star – link
It’s more like falling junk caused by particles of our local star falling into the planets’ atmosphere.
Yeah. These are the same people developing commercial manned space missions. Think I’ll pass on that.
Hmmm… once in a lifetime space rides?
On 4 Feb 2022, from 19:52 CST to beyond 21:48 CST, two of my twilight photometers detected very significant optical noise in the near IR unlike anything I’ve detected since 2013. Does anyone know if this could this have been caused by the Starlink satellites breaking up? The y-axis in the chart is the height of Earth’s shadow, which is related to the times shown above from the beginning of the noise to the top of the chart. The noise is time-dependent and not related to altitude.
A twilight photometer is something I would expect Forrest Mims III to have. Long time fan.
If you wish to know how many of these could fall on our heads, see https://satellitemap.space/#
“a recent geomagnetic storm prevented the satellites from reaching their intended orbit”
why does a geomagnetic strom cause satelilites to not reach their intended orbit?
The storm expands the atmosphere and whips up its surface pushing the edge of space just a bit further out, a smidge further than these inexpensive satellites were flying.
Now they are expensive fireworks.
Muskoid shower..
What are all these Sputniks for….
Ah you say, so that The Poor Under-Developed People can have The Interweb, TV, mobile phones and etc etc
Has anyone actually asked them if they want this stuff?
I would judge it by all the previous ‘gifts’ that have been bestowed on Poor People by well intentioned westerners…
Such as…
Did those folks actually want those things, somehow they ain’t worked out too well
You know why the Poor People need those things – they don’t need them at all.
Western Folks need them.
Western Folks are relentlessly paranoid – they are scared shitless by The Poor People and giving them all that junk and makes them dependant = Western Folks gain control over The Poor People.
Western Folks then know where the poor people are, what they’re doing, how many there are, what they’re eating etc etc
And that junk don’t come cheap.
And you thought slavery was a thing of the past………?
Smart Meters and Electric Cars will remove the last vestiges of freedom, liberty and joy from the little people of the west, those Sputniks are the vanguard for the whole rest of the world
Don’t worry – you’ll be able to use your gun, bible and pickup truck to defend you trailer park from them Poor People, so you can use that there Interweb to make sure we all get to hear your opinion. I wonder who decided we needed that?
So many unwarranted assumptions. Do you really dislike people who are different from you that much?
There are still many rural parts of the US that don’t have internet access. There are still areas of the lower 48 that don’t have cellular access. Even when the FCC thought thought that DSL was good enough, the big tech providers thought it wasn’t worth the money.
Nobody is forcing these things on “poor people”. Your eagerness to protect people from things you don’t like is noted.
I don’t know about “poor people” but I’m pretty happy about starlink which gives me a solid high-speed internet connection at my rural home.
“and latterly Covid”
It’s a bit of a stretch to blame the China virus on Westerners. The Wuhan germ warfare lab would have developed it regardless of any funding from “Dr Science” Fauci.
What goes up will come down..
Oh dear Elon, anything else you haven’t considered?
49 went up…40 came down…hmmm…”solar storm” sounds a bit too much like a plausible deniability cover-up….
Aren’t these Musk Sats in very low orbits by design?
As explained to me by a rocket-scientist friend, they are launched, initially, into a low orbit, checked out, and those that are working are then boosted to a much more stable orbit. The culls are allowed to re-enter the atmosphere and burn up. This time, the storm screwed up the plans.
Ah thanks, this makes sense—a lot more than weakening planetary magnetic field fear screechings.
Just a thought, but maybe they could boost them say 20 or 30% of the way from the low orbit where the booster deposited them to the final orbit. That’s high enough that atmospheric drag should be low, even during a solar storm, but still low enough that they have enough fuel left to completely de-orbit the craft if it should fail self-tests.
If it passes self-test it gets boosted the rest of the way to it’s final orbit.
And here, I thought those streaks were someone firing off rockets to tell me “Happy Birthday”. Oh, well – maybe next time. 🙂
Happy Birthday Sara!
If the geomagnetic storm affects large parts of the atmosphere, why weren’t more of the 2,000 satellites re-entering, and not just the 49 they launched this time? Just asking.
Cynic in me suspects that the launch went wrong and put the new satellites in too low an orbit.
Looking back, the new satellites were put in too low an orbit. If they were launched 30 miles higher they might have survived. But there is a trade off. You can launch more satellites into a lower initial orbit, or fewer satellites into a higher initial orbit. Additionally the Falcon 9 carries enough extra fuel to return intact to Earth, so if you just let the booster fall into the ocean, you could have gone higher with the 49 but you buy a new booster.
Most of the Starlink satellites have been launched with a quiet Sun. Maybe time to rethink now the solar cycle is ramping up.
Some of the strongest solar storms observed have come during periods of low solar activity:
So that’s what an extraterrestrial invasion would look like. Scary.
Looks just like “Independence Day.”
Remind me – looking up at spectacular light shows in the night sky? Was his how Day of the Triffids started?
Asking for a friend. 🙂
I think they were Triffid seeds and a full bloom Triffid assault will begin when the weather gets a little warmer.
Meanwhile, NASA’s premier institute for space weather studies, Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS, duhhh), plays with fake climate models and adjusts 100 year old temperaure records for political reasons.
Defund GISS.
DON’T LOOK UP | Official Trailer | Netflix
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9923t78CNY
I just wonder if Musk saw this new movie. For sure Netflix will get more views!
dont think many astronomers would be upset at all
eeyores sats are a nusiance to the real work of skywatching i gather
I just want to be sure I understand the physical process. Strat warming in essence causes colder air in the Troposphere to meander further south by disrupting the flow of the polar vortex and in this case the launch vehicle and satellites had to pass through that air?
This denser cold air in the troposphere is what caused the mini satellites to fail to reach their intended orbit ?
Had been thinking of switching to Starlink — maybe have to rethink it. Solar activity isn’t really high now, what’ll happen when there’s some REAL solar storms….
beng135, see my other comment. No disruption for me at all during the X-class last October. Note that these satellites were not fully deployed yet – none of the active ones were affected.
If you have cable it’s not worth it. But if you have satellite already, or DSL, you should still consider it.
Thanks for the info. I have Viasat satellite, and its speed and reliability is reasonable. I’ve read some on how Starlink works — I prb’ly don’t have enough open skies for it.
I used to have Hughes. It was decent – worked from home as a software developer – but starlink was a big step up. But you’re absolutely right about the open skies. I had to mount mine on the roof. If you’re still considering it, download the app – it has a tool to check visibility.