This photo, taken on September 25, 2022, shows the antenna of the Starlink satellite broadband system donated by American technology billionaire Elon Musk in Izyum, Kharkiv region during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Yasuyoshi Chiba | AFP | Getty Images
Starlink, the satellite company owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, warned on Saturday that its service would be “degraded” as solar activity caused the Earth to be hit by the largest geomagnetic storm in two decades.
With about 60% of the approximately 7,500 satellites orbiting the Earth, Starlink is the dominant player in satellite networks.
Musk earlier posted on X that Starlink satellites are under great pressure due to geomagnetic storms, but so far they are relatively stable.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the storm, the largest since October 2003, may continue into the weekend, posing risks to navigation systems, power grids, satellite navigation and other services.
Thousands of Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit use inter-satellite laser links to transmit data to each other at the speed of light in space, allowing the network to provide global Internet coverage.
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