Report claims SpaceX Starship blast created ionospheric hole

The Russians claim that last year's explosion of SpaceX's Starship rocket caused a hole in the ionosphere. Such a phenomenon usually results from chemical processes in the ionosphere that arise from interactions with fuel. This time, according to scientists, the cause was different.

In November 2023, another attempt at an orbital flight of the Starship was made. After successfully separating the first and second stages at an altitude of 69 kilometres, the first stage exploded. The second stage also exploded shortly before reaching orbit at an altitude of about 150 kilometres. Nevertheless, SpaceX drew some positive conclusions from that test. The topic has resurfaced thanks to a study by Russian scientists.

Russian scientists decided to examine the second explosion in detail, as evidenced by a new study published on 26 August in Geophysical Research Letters. In their assessment, the explosion caused a temporary, large ionospheric hole. Such holes usually form due to chemical processes in the ionosphere due to fuel interaction.

This time, the explosion is believed to have caused the phenomenon, specifically the shock wave it generated, which dispersed free electrons in the ionosphere. According to the researchers, the fuel itself may have enhanced the ionospheric hole phenomenon but was not the main cause of its formation. This is why no light display was observed.

The lead author of the study, Yury Yasyukevich, quoted by TASS, explains that "such catastrophic events as the explosion of a spacecraft are interesting precisely because you can see effects that the equipment is not able to detect during weaker events."

This, in turn, can lead to a better understanding of the ionosphere and its structure. It is currently unclear how large the ionospheric hole might have been.