One of them has thus been observed April 3 over the western United States as it burned through the atmosphere. it was part of a group of 21 satellites launched on February 27. An unknown number had not, In the last newsmanaged to reach the planned orbit, according to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who follows in the footsteps the launches of this constellation of satellites. And one of the 21 — the one seen on April 3 — was sent on a downward trajectory to disintegrate in the atmosphere.
At least 14 others are destined to suffer the same fate soon, although some are among the 3912s that were previously put into orbit. Because SpaceX’s Starlink project – which aims to provide Internet coverage to the four corners of the world – has indeed launched an unprecedented number of satellites so far, and the total list of those authorized so far by the American authorities reaches the 7500.
That said, an abnormally high number have already come down to Earth: out of the 3912, 305 have burned in the atmosphere. In February 2022, no less than 40 failed to enter orbit due to a solar flare.
The group of 21 launched in February constitutes the first group of the second generation of Starlink satellites, called V2Mini: they are bigger (an estimated weight of 800 kilos against 300) and are supposed to be more powerful than their predecessors, but the true representatives of this second generation, intended for launch later this year or in 2024, will be even bigger (2000 kilos).
In a terse tweet on March 22, Elon Musk acknowledged that the new group was “encountering certain problems” that could force several of them to be “de-orbited”, that is, taken out of orbit.
Those who have been worried for years about space pollution, i.e. the growing number of vehicles in orbit that are at risk of creating collisions, have reason to worry when they observe the evolution of the Starlink project: with more than 3600 satellites still up there, it already represents, on its own, more than half of all the active satellites that revolve around us. Their high numbers are also beginning to impact astronomy, each of them being a large piece of metal that reflects the Sun’s rays.