On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 launched 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Advanced 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Area Heart in Florida. The following day, a geomagnetic storm collided with the satellites.

In accordance with SpaceX, “Preliminary evaluation present the elevated drag on the low altitudes prevented the satellites from leaving secure mode to start orbit-raising maneuvers, and as much as 40 of the satellites will reenter or have already got reentered the Earth’s environment.” SpaceX additionally added, “In truth, onboard GPS suggests the escalation velocity and severity of the storm induced atmospheric drag to extend as much as 50 p.c increased than throughout earlier launches,” SpaceX wrote in its replace. The satellites had been then positioned in a protecting “secure mode” and commanded to fly edge-on “like a sheet of paper” to reduce drag results as the corporate labored with the U.S. Area Drive and the corporate LeoLabs to trace them with ground-based radar.” up to date Feb. 8, 2022.