Starlink's 20 doomed satellites fall from space, burn in Earth's atmosphere

The scientists confirmed that Starlink's 20 satellites - which were released prematurely when the SpaceX rocket's failed launch took place last week - fell back towards Earth and got burned up in the upper atmosphere.

Currently, the experts have been investigating what went wrong and the rockets - which are likely to have caused the catastrophic failure - have been grounded till the investigation ends.

A Falcon 9 rocket was launched by Space X on July 11 from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at 10:35 pmET. The launch took place one day after it was originally planned.

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Initially, the launch took place as expected and the first stage of the rocket was successful when it was detached from the satellite-laden second stage before the landing of a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Where did the SpaceX rocket go wrong?

The SpaceX rocket failed to complete its second stage because of a leak in liquid oxygen due to which it was stranded in a low orbit around Earth.

However, the rocket was able to release its payload in the second stage. The satellites were however stuck in an elliptical orbit around Earth which has a minimum altitude of 84 miles (135 kilometres), which is nearly half the height at which they normally operate.

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In a statement, SpaceX representatives wrote that the satellites were slowed by the atmospheric drag at this elevation and they started to fall back towards the Earth by nearly 3 miles (5 km).

"At this level of drag, our maximum available thrust is unlikely to be enough to successfully raise the satellites," wrote SpaceX representatives. "As such, the satellites will re-enter Earth's atmosphere and fully demise," they added.

Space News reported that the company took control of most of the satellites and gave orders to burn them in the atmosphere at their maximum thrust known as "warp 9", in the last attempt to regain altitude.

(With inputs from agencies)