SpaceX has revealed that it could lose nearly all of the Starlink satellites that it launched last week after a geomagnetic storm disrupted their deployment.
SpaceX explained that as with all of its Starlink missions, Thursday’s batch of 49 satellites was originally deployed at an altitude of about 130 miles , some way below the final operational orbit. This initial position ensures that if a Starlink satellite fails to begin functioning as it should, it will quickly deorbit and burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, thereby preventing it from becoming a piece of hazardous space junk.
The Starlink team responded by placing the satellites into safe mode to make them fly edge-on “like a sheet of paper” in a move designed to minimize the strength of the drag. SpaceX was keen to point out that the satellites pose no collision risk as they lose altitude, adding that no space junk will be created, with no parts crashing to Earth, either.
How dafuq is this a digital trend?