NORAD tracking of the 2022 February Starlink satellites and the immediate loss of 32 satellites

Abstract

In this work, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) tracking of the SpaceX Starlink satellite launch on 3 February 2022 is reviewed. Of the 49 Starlink satellites released into orbit, 38 were eventually lost. A total of 32 of the satellites were never tracked by NORAD. Two different physical mechanisms have been proposed and published in Space Weather to explain the satellite losses, while another mechanism has been proposed in a publication archived on arXiv. It is argued that none of these three papers can explain the immediate loss of 32 of the 49 satellites. We suggest that scientists use NORAD satellite tracking information to further investigate possible loss mechanisms.