Starlink Satellites Lost on Falcon 9 Upper Stage Failure
upstart writes:
Starlink satellites lost on Falcon 9 upper stage failure:
SpaceX says it will not be able to recover the 20 Starlink satellites left in a very low orbit after a malfunction of a Falcon 9 upper stage on a July 11 launch.
In a statement July 12, the company said that the 20 satellites on the Group 9-3 launch have been unable to raise the orbit because the electric propulsion systems on the spacecraft cannot counteract the high atmospheric drag the satellites encounter in their very low orbits.
The rocket's upper stage engine "experienced an anomaly and was unable to complete its second burn," the company stated, which would have circularized the orbit of the stage before satellite deployment. While the stage was able to deploy the satellites, they were left in an orbit with a perigee, or low point, of just 135 kilometers.
That kept them in what SpaceX called an "enormously high-drag environment" that reduced the perigee by at least five kilometers per orbit. "At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites. As such, the satellites will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and fully demise."
SpaceX Chief Executive Elon Musk posted a few hours after the anomaly that satellite controllers were trying to fire the spacecraft's electric thrusters at maximum levels to overcome atmospheric drag. "We're updating satellite software to run the ion thrusters at their equivalent of warp 9," he stated. "Unlike a Star Trek episode, this will probably not work, but it's worth a shot."
The company added that the satellites "do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety" given their very low orbits and a design that is intended to break up completely on reentry.
The SpaceX statement provided few additional details about the problem with the upper stage. It noted that there was a liquid oxygen leak on the second stage noticed during the first burn of the single Merlin engine. That would explain the unusual ice buildup seen on parts of the engine.
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