During tonight’s Falcon 9 launch of Starlink, the second stage engine did not complete its second burn. As a result, the Starlink satellites were deployed into a lower than intended orbit. SpaceX has made contact with 5 of the satellites so far and is attempting to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters.

Jul 12, 2024 · 5:37 AM UTC

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The team made contact with 10 of the satellites and attempted to have them raise orbit using their ion thrusters, but they are in an enormously high-drag environment with their perigee, or lowest point of their elliptical orbit, only 135 km above the Earth
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Each pass through perigee removes 5+ km of altitude from the highest point in the satellite orbit. At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites.
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As such, the satellites will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere and fully demise. They do not pose a threat to other satellites in orbit or to public safety. spacex.com/launches/mission/…
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Replying to @SpaceX
We’re updating satellite software to run the ion thrusters at their equivalent of warp 9. Unlike a Star Trek episode, this will probably not work, but it’s worth a shot. The satellite thrusters need to raise orbit faster than atmospheric drag pulls them down or they burn up.
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Replying to @SpaceX
Now that's transparency! All things are not perfect, but the drive to perfection is.
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Replying to @SpaceX
So, we might get lower latency for a while?
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Replying to @SpaceX
wow this is a first issue for Falcon 9 in a long time
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Replying to @SpaceX
I’ve never seen that much ice built up. Was there a liquid Oxygen leak?
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Replying to @SpaceX
I don’t know much about ion thrusters, but tonight we are all rooting for their success in getting these satellites into a higher plane - and we hope ya’ll will make contact with the rest 🙏🏻🙏🏻
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Replying to @SpaceX
Well it's rare to have some malfunction with SpaceX Falcon flight but we are sure they will gain valuable insights from data to make it more robust for the future.
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