After catastrophic SpaceX rocket crash, 20 satellites fall from the sky and trigger investigation

Twenty Starlink Satellites were released prematurely in a failed SpaceX rocket launch last week – and now observations have confirmed that they all burned up in the upper atmosphere after falling back to Earth. Experts are currently investigating what happened, and the rockets responsible will remain grounded until that investigation is complete.

On July 11, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:35 p.m. ET. one day later than originally planned. The launch initially went as expected, and the rocket’s first stage successfully separated from the satellite-laden second stage before landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The second stage has not completed its second fire due to a liquid oxygen leak, leaving it stuck in low orbit around the Earth. (It is currently unclear if the leak was the cause of the delayed launch.)

The rocket’s second stage was still able to release its payload. However, the satellites remained stuck in an elliptical orbit around our planet, with a minimum altitude of 135 kilometers – about half the altitude at which they normally operate. At this altitude, air resistance slowed the satellites, and they began to fall back to Earth by about 5 kilometers with each completed orbit, SpaceX representatives wrote in a opinion on July 11th.

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“At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust will likely be insufficient to successfully launch the satellites,” SpaceX officials wrote. “As a result, the satellites will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and be completely destroyed.”

The company gained control of most of the satellites and ordered them to ignite at maximum thrust, known as “Warp 9,” in a final attempt to regain altitude. Space News reportedBut that wasn’t enough to save the satellites.

A photo of a rocket with ice on the outside

This screenshot from the webcast of the July 11 launch of a SpaceX Starlink satellite shows a buildup of liquid oxygen ice on the second stage of the Falcon 9 rocket. (Image credit: SpaceX)

The following observations from Jonathan McDowellan astrophysicist at Harvard University, have now confirmed that all 20 satellites suffered a fiery death on July 12. Spaceweather.com reported.

The reentering spacecraft “posed no threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety,” SpaceX officials wrote. And so far, there are no reports of the spacecraft reaching the Earth’s surface, according to Spaceweather.com.

This was the first failed Falcon 9 launch since 2016 and the largest single loss of Starlink satellites since February 2022, when a geomagnetic storm knocked 40 satellites out of the sky shortly after the satellites were launched into Earth orbit.

A photo of the landing of the first rocket stage on a platform

The rocket’s first stage successfully landed on a platform in the Pacific Ocean after separating from the second stage. (Image credit: SpaceX)

SpaceX is currently investigating what happened under the supervision of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), according to Live Science’s sister site Space.com reportedUntil this investigation is completed, the company cannot launch any more Falcon 9 rockets.

SpaceX’s Starship interplanetary rocket was also banned by the FAA in 2023 Thereafter exploded minutes after takeoff during its first test flight on April 20 last year.

It’s currently unclear how long the Falcon 9 rockets will have to remain grounded, but an unnamed industry expert told Space News that the space shuttle could remain grounded for months, which – if true – would force a significant shake-up of the company’s launch schedule for the rest of the year.

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