Elon Musk‘s SpaceX on Friday said that the Starlink satellites launched by the company aboard its Falcon 9 rocket to a lower-than-expected orbit on Thursday will “fully demise.”
What Happened: SpaceX launched Falcon 9 with 20 Starlink satellites from California on Thursday. However, the Starlink satellites were deployed in a lower-than-intended orbit owing to an issue with the rocket’s second-stage engine.
Though the company subsequently tried to make contact with the satellites to raise their orbits, the attempts failed and now the satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise, SpaceX said in a post on X. The satellites will pose no threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety, the company added.
“Shooting stars,” Musk wrote about the demise of his satellites.
“SpaceX will perform a full investigation in coordination with the FAA, determine root cause, and make corrective actions to ensure the success of future missions. With a robust satellite and rocket production capability, and a high launch cadence, we're positioned to rapidly recover and continue our pace as the world's most active launch services provider,” the space startup said in a statement.
Musk also said on Friday that the identification of the problem should be simpler given the high flight rate of the Falcon 9 rocket.
“We are tracking to do more Falcon flights this year than Shuttle did in 30 years, the vast majority of which are uncrewed. A major advantage of this super high flight rate is that we can identify and resolve problems that may only occur once every 1000 flights. This is impossible on a low flight rate vehicle,” Musk said.
SpaceX completed 67 missions using its Falcon launch vehicles as of the end of the second quarter, with Falcon 9 alone accounting for 66 launches. The company is looking to launch 144 times in 2024, averaging twelve times per month.
Why It Matters: Starlink is the satellite internet segment of Musk's SpaceX. The company intends to provide global connectivity using a Starlink satellite network in Earth's low-Earth orbit.
The segment achieved a breakeven cash flow in November.
According to a study by astronomer Jonathan McDowell, SpaceX has launched over 6,700 Starlink satellites to date, of which over 5,900 are in operational orbit.
Check out more of Benzinga’s Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.
Read More:
Photo courtesy: SpaceX
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Comments
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
