SpaceX CEO Elon Musk: Some New Starlink V2 Mini Satellites To Deorbit

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says that some of the company's new Starlink V2 Mini satellites are experiencing problems and will have to be deorbited. He made the announcement on Twitter on March 22, responding to questions from satellite observers who noticed unusual orbital behavior of the spacecraft.

"Lot of new technology in Starlink V2, so we're experiencing some issues, as expected," Musk wrote. "Some sats will be deorbited, others will be tested thoroughly before raising altitude above Space Station."

The Starlink V2 Mini satellites are part of SpaceX’s second-generation constellation of broadband internet satellites. They are larger and more capable than the first-generation Starlink satellites that SpaceX has launched more than 4,000 of to date.

According to SpaceX's filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), each Starlink V2 Mini satellite weighs about 800 kilograms and has two solar arrays 12.8 meters long. They feature improved phased-array antennas and use E-band frequencies for backhaul that gives each satellite four times the capacity of earlier spacecraft. They also have new higher-performance electric thrusters that use argon, rather than krypton, propellant to reduce costs.

SpaceX launched the first batch of 21 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on Feb. 27 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The satellites were deployed into orbits nearly 370 kilometers high and started raising their orbits a few days later. However, they stopped their orbit raising around March 15 and started descending at varying rates.

Musk did not specify what kind of issues the satellites were facing or how many of them would be deorbited. He also did not say when SpaceX plans to launch more Starlink V2 Mini satellites or how they differ from the ultimate Starlink V2 satellites, which will weigh about 2,000 kilograms each with solar arrays 20 meters long.

SpaceX is competing with other companies such as OneWeb and Amazon's Kuiper Systems for a share of the global satellite internet market. SpaceX has already begun offering beta service to customers in several countries using its first-generation Starlink satellites and aims to provide global coverage by August this year.