Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket Falcon 9 punches a hole in earth's Ionosphere

Elon Musk's SpaceX rocket, called Falcon 9, reportedly created a hole in the Ionosphere, which is a part of earth's atmosphere. SpaceX launched the rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base on July 19

Elon Musk owned SpaceX's rocket Falcon 9 punched a hole in the ionosphere of our planet's atmosphere. SpaceX launched the rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on July 19.

According to the company's official website, Falcon 9 is the world's first orbital-class reusable rocket, designed to be dependable and securely transport people and payloads into earth's orbit and beyond. So far, Falcon 9 has completed 240 launches and accomplished 198 landings.

The high-speed Falcon 9 rocket left a faint red glow in the sky over Flagstaff, Arizona, that clearly showed the formation of a hole in the ionosphere, a part of the 10,000 kilometres atmosphere.

Jeff Baumgardner of Boston University told spaceweather.com that this is a well-studied phenomenon when a rocket burns its engines 200-300 km (around 120 to 190 miles) above the earth's surface.

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Baumgardner reviewed the footage of the July 19 launch, and he claims that the second-stage engine was burned at 286 km or 178 miles near the F-region peak in the daytime. Hence, it is possible that a hole was made in the ionosphere.

This is not the first time that Elon Musk founded SpaceX has caused any environmental damage.

According to Science Times, a Falcon 9 launched from Vandenberg Space Force Basem on 24 August 2017, had created a similar impact. The rocket, since it was carrying low payload, had launched vertically into the atmosphere, creating shockwaves and rupturing the ionosphere as it exited. 

Elon Musk's Falcon 9 repeated the same thing with its launch on June 19, 2022.

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Ionosphere: Explained

The Ionosphere is a region where space begins, and the region is filled with charged particles like ions and spans between 50 to 400 miles above the surface. This region plays a critical role in creating auroras during geomagnetic storms as solar plasma reacts with ions producing spectacular colours in the sky. 

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Earth’s ionosphere overlaps the top of the atmosphere and the very beginning of space. This boundary to space is right where many of our earth-orbiting satellites hang out, including the International Space Station.