https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/09/science/spacex-satellites…
**Solar Storm Destroys 40 New SpaceX Satellites in Orbit**
**The geomagnetic incident resulted in the Starlink transmitters drifting back into Earth’s atmosphere, where they will burn up, potentially costing the company about $100 million.**
**By Robin George Andrews, The New York Times, Feb. 9, 2022**
**...**
**The incident highlights the hazards faced by numerous companies planning to put tens of thousands of small satellites in orbit to provide internet service from space. And it’s possible that more solar outbursts will knock some of these newly deployed orbital transmitters out of the sky. The sun has an 11-year-long cycle in which it oscillates between hyperactive and quiescent states. Presently, it is ramping up to its peak, which has been forecast to arrive around 2025.**
**This recent solar paroxysm was relatively moderate by the sun’s standards. “I have every confidence that we’re going to see an extreme event in the next cycle, because that typically is what happens during a solar maximum,” said Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at the University of Southampton in England. ...** [end quote]
The “moderate” coronal mass ejection (CME) reached Earth the day before the SpaceX launch, creating a geomagnetic storm. SpaceX should have delayed the launch until the atmosphere returned to normal.
Beware of solar storms ramping up to 2025. It’s impossible to say what will happen. There is a small possibility of a super-size CME that could fry electronic components even on the surface of the Earth. Even a moderate one could damage satellites.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrington_Event
Wendy