عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Varieties

Solar Storm Destroys 40 Satellites

SpaceX Starlink 5 satellites are pictured in the sky seen from Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark April 21, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS
SpaceX Starlink 5 satellites are pictured in the sky seen from Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark April 21, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS
TT
TT

Solar Storm Destroys 40 Satellites

SpaceX Starlink 5 satellites are pictured in the sky seen from Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark April 21, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS
SpaceX Starlink 5 satellites are pictured in the sky seen from Svendborg on South Funen, Denmark April 21, 2020. Ritzau Scanpix/Mads Claus Rasmussen via REUTERS

A geomagnetic storm triggered by a large burst of radiation from the sun has disabled at least 40 of the 49 satellites newly launched by SpaceX as part of its Starlink internet communications network, the company said.

The incident was believed to mark the largest collective loss of satellites stemming from a single geomagnetic event, Harvard-Smithsonian astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said. The company's announcement, posted on its website said the satellites were stricken last Friday, Feb. 4, a day after they were launched to a preliminary "low-deployment" orbit about 210 km above Earth.

SpaceX said it routinely deploys its satellites to such low orbits at first so they can quickly and safely be allowed to fall back toward Earth and incinerate on re-entry if a malfunction is detected during initial system checkouts. But SpaceX left unclear whether the company had anticipated the severity of the extreme space weather conditions it faced, fueled by a solar storm days earlier, when it sent its latest batch of 49 satellites aloft.

According to SpaceX, the speed and severity of the solar storm drastically increased atmospheric density at the satellites' low-orbit altitude, creating intense friction or drag that knocked out at least 40 of them.

Starlink operators tried commanding the satellites into a "safe-mode" orbital configuration allowing them to fly edge-on to minimize drag, but those efforts failed for most of the satellites, forcing them into lower levels of the atmosphere where they burned up on re-entry, SpaceX said.

"This is unprecedented as far as I know," McDowell told Reuters. He said he believed it marked the single greatest loss of satellites from a solar storm, and first mass satellite failure caused by an increase in atmospheric density.

SpaceX, the Los Angeles area-based rocket company founded by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, has launched hundreds of small satellites into orbit since 2019 as part of his Starlink service for broadband internet.

Most Viewed

 
 
Varieties

$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
TT
TT

$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)

It's an enormous price to pay for a little cup of coffee, but the man behind the pitch promises it won't leave a bitter taste behind as it comes with the sweetner of a share of a dairy farm.
A Scottish dairy is offering what it bills as the UK's most expensive cup o' joe: 272 British pounds ($344) for a flat white — a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art, The Associated Press reported.
The costly cup is actually a perk for purchasing shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy's crowdfunding campaign to enlarge its sustainable operation and produce more milk. Investors who buy 34 shares in the farm get a certificate for a flat white that can be redeemed starting this weekend at one of 13 coffee shops in Scotland that use the dairy's milk.
“This coffee costs nearly 80 times the price of an average flat white in the UK — but it’s much more than just a lovely drink,” said owner Bryce Cunningham. "We know it sounds crazy, but when you break it down, it’s a pretty good deal. How much is the future of farming worth?”
The price tops the eye-watering 265 pounds that Shot London, a coffee bar in the posh Mayfair and Marylebone neighborhoods, charged for a flat white made with rare beans from Okinawa, Japan. The Telegraph reported in April that it was the most expensive coffee in Britain.
Before launching the coffee promotion, Cunningham had already raised more than a third of the 300,000 pounds he is seeking from small investors as he tries to get a 900,000 pound loan that will help him double operations and expand out of Scotland and as far as coffee shops in London.
Shareholders receive other rewards, too, such farm tours, milk delivery discounts and invites to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of the money they invest — except for the coffee.
The tenant farm in Mauchline, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Glasgow, was worked in the 18th century by poet Robert Burns, who penned “Auld Lang Syne" and many other well-known works. Burns, who is considered the national poet of Scotland, wrote while working in the fields there for two years and his face graces each glass bottle of Mossgiel milk.
Cunningham, a former service manager for Mercedes-Benz, took over the operation in 2014 after his father and grandfather died in 2014 from terminal illnesses.
The collapse of milk prices that year and other problems forced him to sell off most of the herd and reinvent the business as an organic farm. He uses a process to “brew” the milk, instead of pasteurize it, that he said gives it the creamer taste and texture of raw milk without the health risks.
Todd Whiteford, one of the owners of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow that is serving the costly cups, said they’ve been using Mossgiel's milk for several years. Despite “outrageous offers" from competitors to switch, he said other milk producers can't match the quality and consistency that makes for “rounder, smoother and sweeter” cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites — and better coffee art.
“Theirs is the best. I’ll argue with anyone about that,” Whiteford said.
Anyone who splashes out to buy a Mossgiel coffee, though, will be getting the same cup other Coffee Cartel customers can purchase for 3.10 pounds. But Cunningham says there will be a taste of virtue with every posh cup.