[Starlink] Sunburp kills 40 starlink satellites

[Michael Richardson]

Doc Searls <doc at searls.com> wrote:
    > 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.

I wonder if the GPS data will be interesting/helpful to geomagnetic
scientists.

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