On February 8, 2022, SpaceX reported that it had lost 40 of the 49 recently launched Starlink satellites. They did not enter a working orbit due to a geomagnetic storm and began re-entry into the atmosphere, some of them have already collapsed.
On January 30, a long-term flare of medium strength, class M, occurred on the Sun. The phenomenon lasted more than four hours and was accompanied by a coronal mass ejection directed towards the Earth. The ejection reached our planet on February 3rd. It caused disturbances in the atmosphere and a weak G1 magnetic storm, which lasted for several days.
On February 3, SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. On February 4, significant changes began in the Earth's atmosphere during a geomagnetic storm. Because of it, at the heights of deployment of the new Starlink satellites (210 km), there was heating and an increase in the density of the atmosphere. The actual rate of escalation of the space incident and the strength of the magnetic storm resulted in a 50% increase in atmospheric drag compared to previous Starlink satellite launches.
SpaceX tried to rectify the situation and switched the Starlink satellites to the most efficient mode, in which they should fly not sideways, but edges forward in order to pierce the atmosphere "like a sheet of paper." This was to help minimize the increased atmospheric drag and try to give them a chance to "shelter from the storm".
It didn't help much. SpaceX found that increased drag at low altitudes prevented most of the satellites from coming online to begin orbital boost maneuvers. An analysis of their telemetry showed that up to 40 satellites will re-enter or have already entered the Earth's atmosphere and began to break up. Their design assumes complete destruction upon entry into the atmosphere without falling debris.
SpaceX explained that the incident will not leave debris in orbit, and the company will take measures to prevent such contingencies in the future. SpaceX has said it is intentionally releasing batches of Starlink into low orbit so they can be disposed of quickly in the event of a failure immediately after launch. For example, if some of them did not pass system checks. Now it turned out that such an orbit option made part of the new fleet of satellites vulnerable to a geomagnetic storm.
In total, since May 2019, SpaceX has launched about 2 thousand spacecraft of the Starlink satellite constellation into orbit. In early 2022, astronomers assessed the damage to sky images from the current constellation of Starlink satellites, which are already interfering with scientific observations from Earth.
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