--- title: A Solar Storm Knocked 40 SpaceX Satellites Out of the Sky description: Scientific organizations warned that a solar storm was coming, but SpaceX decided to launch satellites anyway. Now they've lost 40 of them. canonical: https://time.com/6146986/space-x-satellites-solar-storm/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-02-10T17:37:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:43.438Z article:section: Science og:title: Solar Storm Knocks 40 SpaceX Satellites From Orbit. og:description: Does the Company Share the Blame? og:url: https://time.com/6146986/space-x-satellites-solar-storm/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8cf4b811915923/698a22550116822ebb9818c7/solar-storm-large-e1644514457778.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1788 og:image:height: 1006 og:image:alt: solar-storm-large og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Solar Storm Knocks 40 SpaceX Satellites From Orbit. twitter:description: Does the Company Share the Blame? twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdc8cf4b811915923/698a22550116822ebb9818c7/solar-storm-large-e1644514457778.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Solar Storm Knocks 40 SpaceX Satellites Out of the Sky, After the Company Ignored Scientists' Warnings > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=2818c930-ae21-42ea-8b1b-53eb942359ef&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME Person of the Year 2021: Elon Musk [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Person of the Year 2021: Elon Musk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/mYXITUNy.m3u8) (12:42)  _Published 2021-12-13. Person of the Year is a marker of influence, and few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too. In 2021, Musk emerged not just as the world’s richest person but also as perhaps the richest example of a massive shift in our society._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 10, 2022 5:37 PM UTC  A 2018 solar storm similar to the one that knocked 40 SpaceX satellites out of orbit this week. A 2018 solar storm similar to the one that knocked 40 SpaceX satellites out of orbit this week. NASA/GSFC/Solar Dynamics Observatory  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 10, 2022 5:37 PM UTC Let’s start with the good news: There is no danger to anyone on the ground from the flock of 40 SpaceX Starlink satellites that are currently plunging from orbit and heading for Earth, knocked from the sky by a geomagnetic storm originating from the sun. Atmospheric drag will easily incinerate the small, 260 kg (575 lb.) satellites before they reach the surface. As for the bad news? Well, the fact that there is currently a cluster of 40 SpaceX Starlink satellites plunging from orbit at all. The doomed spacecraft were part of a payload of 49 Starlink satellites SpaceX launched into orbit on Feb. 3, intended to join the 1,925 other Starlinks—which aim to improve and provide global access to broadband service—already circling the planet in orbits that range from 540 km (335 mi) to 1,300 km (800 mi). As is common practice for SpaceX, all Starlinks are originally placed in a brief parking orbit just 209 km (130 mi) up so that they can be run through a systems check-out from the ground to make sure they are functioning properly. Any duds among them are simply left in that low orbit, where atmospheric drag quickly pulls them back out of the sky on an incinerating reentry. But that plan assumes that the sun behaves, and on Jan. 29 it didn’t, releasing a storm of charged particles toward Earth known as a coronal mass ejection. Such solar storms usually present little danger to Earth, and the [Space Weather Prediction Center](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/products/alerts-watches-and-warnings), a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, [rated the storm as a 2](https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/geomagnetic-storm-conditions-likely-2-3-february-2022) on a 1 to 5 scale, a severity it calls “moderate.” The catch: the tidal wave of charged particles was expected to reach Earth on Feb. 2 or 3—or just as SpaceX was planning its Starlink launch. The company went ahead with its plans nonetheless, saying nothing about the wisdom of not waiting out the storm, but instead merely [announcing in a blog post](https://www.spacex.com/updates/), “On Thursday, February 3 at 1:13 p.m. EST, Falcon 9 [launched](https://www.spacex.com/launches/sl4-7/) 49 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Falcon 9’s second stage deployed the satellites into their intended orbit, with a perigee of approximately 210 kilometers above Earth, and each satellite achieved controlled flight.” But that anodyne announcement masked what is starting to look like a major blunder. When energy from a solar storm reaches Earth, it causes the atmosphere to expand slightly, meaning that satellites flying in what would normally be a safe, 209 km parking orbit are suddenly encountering a lot of air resistance that can pull them back to the ground. SpaceX was aware of the problem as soon as the 49 satellites reached space and attempted to ride out the storm, positioning the relatively flat-shaped spacecraft edge-forward, to minimize air resistance. “The Starlink team commanded the satellites into a safe-mode where they would fly edge-on (like a sheet of paper) to minimize drag—to effectively ‘take cover from the storm,’” SpaceX posted. But in this case physics has a bigger vote than SpaceX, and the safe-mode maneuver worked for only nine of the fleet of 49\. The others were effectively clawed out of the sky and are already reentering the atmosphere or will begin to do so by the end of the week. SpaceX applauded itself for handling the problem with minimal risk to other satellites or to people or property on the ground—while ignoring the question of whether it would have been wiser simply to postpone the launch for a week or so. “This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation,” the company wrote. NASA, for its part, remained mum about the problem, but did choose this week to smack down SpaceX and Starlink in other ways. [In a five-page, Feb. 7 letter](https://www.scribd.com/document/557924666/NTIA-NASA-NSF-letter-to-FCC-regarding-Starlink-Gen-2) to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NASA raised doubts about the Starlink program as a whole—particularly whether the company’s plan for an ultimate Starlink constellation of more than 30,000 satellites will increase collision risks with other orbiting asset—including crewed spacecraft—and interfere with atmospheric observations. “NASA has concerns with the potential for a significant increase in the frequency of conjunction events, and possible impacts to NASA’s science and human space flight missions,” the space agency wrote. “Consequently, NASA submits this letter for the purpose of providing a better understanding of NASA’s concerns with respect to its assets on-orbit, and to further mitigate the risk of collisions for the benefit of all involved.” The timing of the letter may have been coincidental—or may have been planned as a reminder that for all its global star power, SpaceX remains a private company subject to public laws. Without NASA’s support and FCC approval, future Starlinks could remain grounded. The 40 satellites now on their death plunge, might be a small part of SpaceX’s larger plans. Avoiding future incidents like the one unfolding this week could go a long way to determining if those plans will indeed be realized. ## Transcript Okay, all right, all good. So, which living person do you most admire? I admire anyone who is making a positive contribution to humanity. Whether that is an entertainment or technology or, you know, I think anyone who's sort of doing things that are really useful to the rest of humanity is, I admire them greatly. You know, it's really hard to escape Elon Musk's dominance over so many things in American life, right now. He's got this rocket company that is completely dominating the space launch business. He's got a car company that is completely dominating the electric vehicle market. He's got 65 million Twitter followers, and he likes to make weird jokes and set people off. And sometimes with a single tweet, he can control the stock market or the value of various different cryptocurrencies. So this is a man who's just sort of become ever present across a lot of different sectors. And this was really the year that he came into his own. His goal is to make humanity a multi-planet species. And in a time in which NASA has abdicated its operations to put people in low Earth orbit. And for the time being, at least, put people on the other worlds, SpaceX has stepped in like no other private company before it around the world. So Elon Musk's wealth is largely tied up in Tesla stock. He is the not only the CEO, he is its largest shareholder. And Tesla is one of the most valuable companies in the country, its market value is more than $1 trillion dollars. And his wealth is sort of tied up in that company. Tesla has dragged the legacy automators into the electric vehicle market. Yeah. Do companies like Ford, GM, Rivian, Lucid, pose a threat to Tesla's dominance? Or do you think you guys have so grasp the market at this point that you are going to own it? Well, if somebody makes better cars than we do, then, and they then sell more cars than we do, I think that's totally fine. Our intent with Tesla was always that we would serve as an example, to the car industry and that, and hope that they also make electric cars so that we can accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. I'm confident in the future in Tesla that will do well. And I hope some of these other companies do well, too. Earlier this year, this Tesla crashed into a highway divider in California killing the driver, another slammed into a parked fire truck in Utah, both had the autopilot feature on. There is a federal investigation underway into the autopilot software that Tesla has, which despite the name is not autopilot software, it does not drive the car for you. And people inside Tesla have expressed a lot of skepticism about whether the company's technology is eventually going to be able to get there. Are the cars safe? I mean, should I feel comfortable getting behind the wheel of a Tesla and saying, drive me where I need to go? Well, the statistics that I think are at this point unequivocal, that you know far more accidents off autopilot than on autopilot. So this is not to say that autopilot is perfect. Now to get to full self driving where you don't need to pay attention, we still obviously have a lot of work to do. So as we get to the point where interventions are extremely rare even in complex traffic situations, and get to the point where the probability of injury with full self driving is much lower than whether human driving. Right. Then obviously at that point, it would make sense to allow the car to drive itself and not have to pay attention. So this year, Elon Musk became the world's richest man ever. So we asked him about another pressing global problem, and that is income and wealth inequality. When it's time to pay taxes, new reporting from ProPublica says the nation's top 25 richest people pay little to nothing at all, including Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk. One of the main criticisms of him is just that he's so rich, should any human being be worth $300 billion dollars? Yeah, a lot of the push for higher government involvements, and expropriation of assets by the government is really pushed by a bunch of politicians who are actually saying that resources shouldn't be in control of people—of private individuals, they should be in control of the government. They're basically saying they want control of the assets. I mean, I think in terms of things that people should perhaps get upset about is like, I think getting upset about excess consumption is a thing to get upset about. But, you know, somebody is just wasting money on personal luxuries in a crazy way. You know, I'm like, I'm not, I'm not Warren Buffett's biggest fan, frankly. But, you know, he sits there. And he reads all these annual reports, which are super boring. Does anybody want that job? I think most people do. No, I don't want that job. But like, he's not, he's not like, engaged in like, insane, conspicuous consumption. So you have say, like, okay, sure he's got a high net worth, but doesn't— he's doing a useful job for the economy, you know, and he's very skilled at it, and should probably keep doing it. Elon Musk definitely uses Twitter in a way that no other business leader does. And it's gotten him into a lot of trouble in recent years. His twitter feed is juvenile, to say the least he has insulted some important people in really immature ways. But when a person with 65 million followers and $300 billion dollars, is just having fun, that tends to create ripples in the larger pond. You are not to put too fine a point on it, the richest man in the history of the world, and arguably the most influential. And yet you tweet freely and playfully and mischievously. I guess that's—that's accurate. So are feuds with policymakers? Or poking Jeff Bezos? Is that good for the overall brand? Yeah, I don't really think about brand optimization to be frank, as lobbyists for my tweets, which are often self inflicted wounds, or humor that I find funny, but not necessarily that other many other people find funny, right? You know, when you say take the red pill, do you worry about sending none to— I say take both pills. But do you worry at all about activating motivating the, you know, political fringe? Yeah, actually, when I said take the red pill, I didn't realize that was some like, politically charged phrase— Right. I'm just referring to "The Matrix". Yeah. You know, yeah. Like, you know, make sure you accept reality for what it is right? And it turns out, it's like, also like some, like, accept right wing dogma thing, or something? I don't, I didn't realize that at the time. You do have the ability to move markets with a tweet, should any one man have that power? Well, um, you know, the markets move themselves all the time. And so, you know, especially Tesla stock has seen some very big changes in value from one day to the next based on nothing, as far as I can tell. So just statements that I make_ are they materially different from random movements of the stock that might happen anyway? I don't think so. It's not like, you know, stock drops in half or something like that, you know, Elon Musk is someone who pursues his goals relentlessly. And I think that does sometimes make him blind to the potential human toll, the potential human cost that, that can create for some of the people who gets sort of ground up in the gears of the things he's trying to do. You've made statements, downplaying COVID-19, you kept your factories open, running at the height of the pandemic. Well, actually, technically, I think there's a misunderstanding there on the on the factories front, Tell me about that. So other car factories in the United States had started—had restarted. Right. And we were blocked, only because our car factories in the Bay Area in California. So California had actually said, manufacturing can restart. And then Alameda County sided off their own accord that the Tesla could not restart. Reopening the factory in Alameda was arguably a poor management choice. I think he was aware of the risks that his employees were taking. I don't think it was necessarily a fair choice to pressure or invite or ask or instruct employees to come back to work. Are you vaccinated? If I may ask. Yeah. I'm very pro-vaccination. We've it's the science is unequivocal. I treat it to that effect. But by the same token, I am against forcing people to be vaccinated. You know, I think this is just not something we should do in America. I think we should encourage people to be vaccinated, strongly try to convince them to be vaccinated, but not force them to be vaccinated or for example, force them to get vaccinated or get fired. Elon Musk is incredibly influential in the, in the cryptocurrency world. He's constantly tweeting about his opinions about certain cryptocurrencies versus others. He is known as a big proponent of Dogecoin. And someone who has in the past taken Tesla's assets and invested those into Bitcoin and then sold that Bitcoin at a profit. Well, I mean, I could really sort of wax on about the nature of money for hours because I played a significant role in creating PayPal. And so my understanding of the money system at a fundamental level of how it actually works, the detailed mechanics of it is I think there's there very few people that understand it better than me. Bitcoin is an interesting example obviously, the prime mover on this, but the transaction volume of Bitcoin is low, and the cost per transaction is high, it is at least at its base level, suitable for maybe an exchange a store of value, but fundamentally, Bitcoin is not a good substitute for transactional currency. And even though it was created as a silly joke, Dogecoin is better suited for transactions. Why is that? The total transaction flow that you can do with Dogecoin is substantially more than, like transactions per day, is much higher than—has much higher potential than Bitcoin. It is a slightly inflationary but that inflationary number is a fixed number as opposed to a percentage. Right. So that means over time, its percentage inflation actually decreases. And that's actually good because it encourages people to spend and rather than sort of hoard it as a store of value. I'm going to switch to a personal question a little bit if you're okay with that. Yeah, sure. So what happened with Grimes and do you have a new girlfriend? Oh, man. Are you seeing someone new? I know here we are with our somewhat different approach. Grimes as I said, like 70 separated, you know, like, it's just that her work, has her just being in different places a lot versus my work. So we, you know, weren't seeing each other that much. We're still—we're still good friends. And I do not have a new girlfriend or anything. Okay, yeah. I mean, this place is basically like a technology monastery, you know. Technology monastery? Yeah. There's hardly any. I mean, there's someone here, but not many. And it's remote. Yeah. And we deal to do technology. Yes. So this is the techno monastery. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6146986/space-x-satellites-solar-storm/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6146986/space-x-satellites-solar-storm/"},"headline":"Solar Storm Knocks 40 SpaceX Satellites Out of the Sky, After the Company Ignored Scientists' Warnings","datePublished":"2022-02-10T17:37:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:03:43.438Z","description":"Scientific organizations warned that a solar storm was coming, but SpaceX decided to launch satellites anyway. 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