Some 100 Starlink satellites will be sent to an early retirement by SpaceX today because of a flaw that could make them a problem in the future. But don’t expect a burning light show. Also, if you use Starlink, your service shouldn’t be bad.
The announcement says that “the Starlink team identified a common issue” with these first-generation communication satellites that could “increase the probability of failure.”
I’ve asked the company for more information and will change this post if I hear back. But from what was said and what was happening, it sounds like the “failure” would mean losing power. Seventeen Starlink satellites are “currently non-maneuverable,” but SpaceX didn’t say if this was because of the same problem that caused the 100 satellites to be taken out of orbit.
Satellites that don’t have power are mostly just trash, and at this low altitude, they’ll burn up in a few years instead of a few hundred. Mega-constellations like Starlink have been criticized for adding to the problem of space junk. SpaceX doesn’t want to be the one people blame when the sky is full of broken satellites.
That’s why SpaceX has chosen to start controlled descents to take these old satellites out of orbit, even though they are still working fine.
Downward movements will happen “in the coming weeks and months,” but these satellites can’t make big changes, so this is more of a push in the right direction. The process of de-orbiting will actually take about six months. During that time, they will also “take maneuver responsibility for any high-risk conjunctions,” which means that if the Starlink satellites run into other satellites, they will move out of the way nicely.
There is no need to watch the sky because they will fall one by one.
Also Read: The Us Government Will Not Give Spacex’s Starlink Business Another $900 Million in Subsidies
Starlink users don’t need to worry, though, because there are still thousands of satellites in space that are working. So far, almost 6,000 have been launched, and 406 have been taken out of space. Some may not be working, but there are still plenty to go around.
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