In the period from July 18 to September 18 of this year, the SpaceX space company lost 212 satellites of its Starlink project, according to data collected thanks to the Satellitemap.space resource.
There is a stable increase in the number of burned satellites over the past three years, but significant quantitative jump occurred in July.
It is still unclear whether these losses are part of the planned decommissioning process or if they are the result of failures.
The purpose of STARLINK satellites is to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere at the end of their five-year life cycle.
The Starlink project was launched in 2019, and to date, over 5,000 satellites have been deployed into the lower orbit of the Earth, with 4,500 still considered active.
Satellites are also vulnerable to electromagnetic storms, particularly during periods of increased solar activity. Strong solar outbreaks were recorded during the summer period.
For instance, in February of last year, SpaceX officially reported a failure of 40 new satellites shortly after launch, which was attributed to a powerful electromagnetic storm during the launch.
When considering the cost of launching each satellite, potential losses from these incidents are estimated to be around $100 million for the company.