The Falcon 9 rocket owned by SpaceX, during the launch of the satellite Formosat-5 blew a hole in the ionosphere of the Earth with a diameter of 900 kilometers, writes ArsTechnica, citing a study by an international group of scientists, published in the edition of Space Weather.
Five minutes after the launch, the rocket rose to a height of more than 300 kilometers. She flew almost vertically, which led to the formation of the biggest impact of circular waves caused by the launch of a space rocket.
The gap arising in the ionosphere of the Earth, appeared after only 13 minutes after the start of the carrier rocket. Due to its occurrence originated failures in the navigation systems over the Western territories of the United States and the neightbouring areas of the Pacific ocean with a total area of 1.8 million kilometers. The hole was caused by the error in the GPS operation, which was about one meter. Researchers have noted that the phenomenon persisted for several hours.
The publication ArsTechnica reports that the effect lasted for several hours and was comparable to a local disturbance of the magnetic field. Usually after a certain time after launch, the missile travels at a height of 80-100 kilometers almost parallel to the surface of the planet. To reach a height of 300 kilometers for vertical flight, the Falcon 9 managed because of the relatively small mass of Formosat-5 (475 kilograms).
The Taiwanese satellite Formosat-5 was launched on a Falcon 9 rocket SpaceX is 24 August 2017.
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SpaceX rocket blew a hole in the Earth’s ionosphere in August 2017
Vyacheslav Larionov