SpaceX, Iridium boast of resilience during geomagnetic storm

A “once-in-a-generation” geomagnetic storm in May had little effect on the satellite operations of both Iridium and SpaceX’s Starlink, the companies told the FCC.

“Iridium thanks the commission for the opportunity [to] discuss [the] impact of the storm on satellite network operations and is proud to report that Iridium’s resilient network handled the storm extremely well with no service impact to its customers, due in large part to Iridium’s experience operating satellites and its advanced network equipment,” the company wrote in a filing to the FCC this week. Iridium sells satellite services to a variety of customers, including those in the telecom industry.

SpaceX offered a similar take.

“While equivalent terrestrial storms like hurricanes of this magnitude have knocked out ground-based networks, SpaceX was fortunately able to maintain service throughout the May solar storm,” the company wrote. “Indeed, on the day of the storm’s peak on May 11, the average Starlink user saw less than one minute of disruption. Since then, SpaceX’s satellite communications have continued nominally without degradation for users.”

SpaceX counts roughly 3 million customers to its Starlink Internet service, and the company is expanding into other areas, including supplying connections directly to T-Mobile’s phone customers. Starlink officials recently boasted of 90 operational satellites capable of such “direct to cell” connections.

In general, both Iridium and SpaceX trumpeted their efforts to design resilience into their networks. SpaceX, for example, wrote that its roughly 6,000 low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites weathered the storm “thanks to a combination of automatic stationkeeping and collision avoidance, as well as years of first-hand on-orbit experience.” 

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