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The Thermosphere Is a Drag: The 2022 Starlink Incident and the Threat of Geomagnetic Storms to Low Earth Orbit Space Operations

Berger, T. E.; Dominique, M.; Thiemann, E. +6 more

On 03 February 2022, SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites, 38 of which re-entered the atmosphere on or about 07 February 2022 due to unexpectedly high atmospheric drag. We use empirical model (NRLMSIS, JB08, and HASDM) outputs as well as solar extreme ultraviolet occultation and high-fidelity accelerometer data to show that thermospheric density…