February 09, 2022 - 9:25am | By Kyle Cornell
(Hawthorne, CA) -- Dozens of SpaceX Starlink satellites are crashing and burning.
They were part of a batch of 49 launched into orbit last week from Kennedy Space Center. After launch a geomagnetic storm hit the Earth's atmosphere, which can disrupt satellites. And that's exactly what happened in this case.
As many as 40 Starlink satellites never recovered from their safe mode when the storm hit and SpaceX confirmed Tuesday that the satellites will now re-enter or already have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. They're engineered to burn up on re-entry so no debris should reach the ground.