American private aerospace company SpaceX will lose as a result of geomagnetic storm about 40 Internet satellites Starlink out of 49 put into orbit on February 3. This is reported on the company’s website.

“Unfortunately, the satellites deployed on Thursday were severely damaged by Friday’s geomagnetic storm. Preliminary analysis indicates that increased drag at low altitudes prevented them from leaving safe mode to begin orbit-raising maneuvers, and up to 40 satellites will re-enter or have already entered the Earth’s atmosphere,” it said.

The company assured that “the risk of collision with other satellites is zero”. The design of Starlink provides for complete destruction at the entrance to the Earth’s atmosphere, the fall of debris on the planet or (in another outcome of events) the formation of space debris is excluded.

Earlier, the company SpaceX reported that the Falcon 9 heavy launch vehicle successfully put into orbit a batch of 49 mini-satellites designed to continue the deployment of the global network of Internet coverage of the Starlink system.