On July 19, a Falcon 9 rocket operated by SpaceX lifted 15 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from the Californian Vandenberg Space Force Base. The satellites’ launch by the Elon Musk-led space technology company may have potentially damaged the planet’s ionosphere.
A group of areas in the Earth’s atmosphere called the ionosphere are home to electrically charged atoms and molecules. According to NASA, this layer is crucial for communications and navigation systems since radio and GPS signals must pass through it or bounce off it in order to reach their destination. Signal disruption can occur in either case due to variations in the ionosphere’s composition and density.
Earlier this week, Spaceweather.com revealed that SpaceX’s July 19 launch had damaged the ionosphere. “When rockets are firing their engines 200 to 300 kilometers above the surface of the Earth, this is a well-researched occurrence. Space physicist Jeff Baumgardner of Boston University told the website that the ionosphere rapidly recombines when exhaust gases from the rocket’s second stage are present.
These voids in the atmosphere can interfere with low-frequency radio transmissions and even wreak havoc on GPS systems. However, these effects are very short-lived because reionization typically resumes once the Sun rises.