Magnetic storms put Musk's Starlink satellites out of action
Magnetic storms put Musk's Starlink satellites out of action (photo: Getty Images)
On Saturday night, the Earth was hit by the largest geomagnetic storm in two decades, reports Reuters. As it turned out, solar activity even affected Starlink satellites owned by American billionaire Elon Musk.
SpaceX's satellite division has warned of a "deterioration in service quality." Prior to that, in a post on X, Musk said that Starlink satellites are under severe pressure due to the geomagnetic storm, but are still holding up.
Meanwhile, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the storm is the largest since October 2003 and is likely to continue through the weekend, posing a risk to navigation systems, power grids, and satellite navigation, among other services.
Starlink owns approximately 60% of the roughly 7,500 satellites orbiting the Earth and is the dominant player in the satellite Internet.
Thousands of Starlink's satellites in low Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to transmit data to each other in space at the speed of light, allowing the network to offer Internet coverage around the world.
