NASA was ready on Wednesday (12) to launch its latest robotic mission to Mars, ESCAPADE, on board a Blue Origin rocket. However, the launch was canceled due to “extremely high solar activity and its potential impacts” on the spacecraft, the company said in a social media post.
- Read also: As a historic solar storm threatens Europe’s power grid, a rare aurora borealis lights up the UK skies
On Tuesday (11), two explosions of solar material, caused by a pair of powerful coronal mass ejections – massive explosions on the Sun’s surface that release streams of charged particles – collided with Earth’s magnetic bubble in space. This phenomenon generated light displays in the night sky, which can be seen again between Wednesday and Thursday nights. But solar storms and constant activity also required careful monitoring of orbiting fleets of satellites and ongoing missions.
Solar activity reaches a peak in an 11-year cycle
“History shows that these composite coronal mass ejections and interfering storms are the most important for space weather effects,” explained Daniel Becker, a scientist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. “And that’s exactly what we’re seeing now.”
Solar activity, which follows a roughly 11-year cycle, reached its peak last year. According to Baker, the post-peak period usually focuses on solar flares, explosions and other manifestations of greater intensity. When these activities are directed toward Earth, they can generate geomagnetic storms, capable of disturbing the magnetosphere — the protective layer that protects the planet from harmful solar radiation.
In recent days, the Sun has launched three coronal mass ejections, between Sunday and Tuesday. Two of them came together and hit Earth’s atmosphere on Tuesday, increasing the risk of power outages, electrical faults and diversion of air paths.
Dozens of satellites in orbit were also threatened. According to engineer Kerry Kahoe, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the risks vary depending on the altitude. Satellites in low orbit can experience anomalies such as signal loss and reboots. However, the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic field provide some natural protection for this equipment, according to Kahoe.
At higher altitudes, where Earth’s magnetic field is weaker — and where systems like GPS and weather satellites orbit — spacecraft are exposed to much higher doses of radiation. Under these conditions, the magnetosphere can distort or separate, leaving satellites vulnerable to the effects of space weather.
“But they are built for this,” Kahui said. “Spacecraft in higher orbits are designed with special shielding that is resistant to solar radiation. No one sends a satellite there without this protection.”
In the past, according to Baker, most satellites were “radiation-resistant.” However, many of today’s commercial low-orbit models do not have this feature, making them more vulnerable to failure and communications interruption.
The risk of collision and damage will result in the cancellation of the ESCAPADE mission
CMEs also heat and expand Earth’s atmosphere, which can change air resistance at lower altitudes. In 2024, a geomagnetic storm caused some NASA satellites to fall more than three hundred metres. In 2022, a similar event disabled 40 newly launched SpaceX satellites.
Many satellites operate at fixed altitudes, and variations can affect their performance. Adjusting paths to compensate for atmospheric drag increases the risk of collisions — both with other satellites and with millions of pieces of space debris orbiting the planet.
Commenting on the decision to postpone the ESCAPADE mission, scientist Rob Lillis, the project’s principal investigator, stated that the launch would have occurred if solar activity had stopped on Tuesday. However, on Wednesday morning NASA received new projections indicating another coronal mass ejection at the time when both orbits will be launched from the rocket.
“Some decisive steps need to be taken,” Lillis said. The radiation can damage computers on spacecraft and prevent solar panels from opening. “We didn’t want to risk doing it in a more dangerous environment.”
Baker emphasized that the cancellation also avoids the risk of collisions. During geomagnetic storms, NASA and other space agencies lose essential tracking data, which must be restored before any launch. “The chances of a collision increase dramatically,” he explained. “The last thing you want is to bump into something.”
Meanwhile, a satellite launch from global telecommunications company Viasat, scheduled for Thursday, remains confirmed so far. United Launch Alliance, which is responsible for the rocket, said in a statement that it is “closely monitoring solar activity” and that the space weather team “will re-evaluate conditions before the countdown.”
In a bulletin issued on Wednesday afternoon (12), the Space Weather Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed the arrival of a coronal mass ejection that is denser and faster than its predecessors. The effects should continue through Thursday. According to the British Geological Survey, this may be “the largest solar storm to hit the planet in more than two decades.”
Baker compared the current impacts to a series of 2003 Halloween storms that struck the Earth’s magnetosphere. At that time, there were only a few hundred satellites in low orbit, but today, there are thousands.
However, space monitoring agencies are better prepared. “We don’t know for sure what the sun has in store for us yet,” Baker said. “But we hope that, as a scientific community, we will increasingly be able to avoid the most serious consequences.”
About The Author
