--- title: "SpaceX Is Building Its Own Particle Accelerator" description: "As part of an effort to bring the study of space radiation in-house, SpaceX is now developing its own particle accelerator in Florida." date: "2026-02-09" modified: "2026-02-09" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/space/spacex-particle-accelerator" categories: - "Astrophysics" - "NASA" - "Off-World" - "Space" - "SpaceX" --- # SpaceX Is Building Its Own Particle Accelerator ![As part of an effort to bring the study of space radiation in-house, SpaceX is now developing its own particle accelerator in Florida.]() *Getty / Futurism* The Sun unleashes a torrent of charged particles. Some of them slam into the Earth's atmosphere, [triggering breathtaking auroras]() in the night sky. But for equipment that's orbiting our planet in outer space, solar weather can quickly turn into a major headache. The particles have been shown to wreak havoc on the on-board electronics of satellites, [endangering their mission and longevity](). As part of an effort to bring the study and testing of the phenomenon in-house, SpaceX is now developing its own particle accelerator in Florida. The planned facility is a cyclotron, which can accelerate individual protons to near the speed of light, allowing them to study how radiation affects their spacecraft, including its broadband-beaming Starlink satellites. SpaceX’s VP of Starlink, Michael Nicolls, confirmed the news in a [tweet]() last week, announcing that the company is "hiring elite engineers at our new 230 \[mega-electronvolt\] cyclotron facility in Florida, where we are bringing single-event radiation testing in house to accelerate development across all SpaceX vehicles." (Mega-electronvolts, or MeV, are a commonly-used unit to measure the amount of kinetic energy that a single particle can gain.) Put simply, cyclotrons use a magnetic field to bend the path of charged particles into a circular shape, allowing them to be accelerated to high energies. The idea is to blast these particles at certain materials to simulate the effects of space radiation here on Earth. Job pages posted to ZipRecruiter suggest the goal is to study how computer chips react to a bombardment of highly energetic particles. "This proton particle accelerator will be used to screen and characterize electronics across all of our vehicles and platforms, unlocking unprecedented agility for chip and \[Printed Circuit Board Assembly\] level performance characterization that will be critical as we build and scale our AI constellations and deep space exploration vehicles," reads a [posting for an Electronics Test Engineer](). "As a member of our fast-paced Radiation Effects team, you will be responsible for ensuring avionics hardware performance across our fleet of vehicles (Dragon, Falcon, Starship, Lunar Human Landing System, etc.) and satellites (Starlink, Starshield) through some of the harshest and varied radiation environments imaginable," the job posting reads. At 230 MeV, SpaceX's cyclotron would be quite powerful — but with less than the juice than the 590 MeV Ring Cyclotron at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, which is considered the most powerful in the world by beam power. (CERN's Large Hadron Collider is not a cyclotron, but a different type of particle accelerator called a synchrotron.) SpaceX's Starlink satellites have already had to [endure the damaging effects of space weather](), particularly during solar storms. These bursts of electromagnetic activity in orbit have been found to shorten the lifespans of Starlink satellites, causing them to [de-orbit much sooner than expected](). Beyond orbit, conditions get even more extreme. Well past the protective boundaries of the Earth's atmosphere, which extends [thousands of miles]() beyond our planet's surface, spacecraft are exposed to the full brunt of space radiation — a major challenge for missions into deep space, crewed or uncrewed. While the risks to electronics are considerable, scientists are still studying the effects of space radiation on the human body as well. Astronauts are [exposed to 2.6 times as much radiation]() on the surface of the Moon, for instance, as they would be when spending the same amount of time on board the International Space Station. **More on SpaceX:** [*SpaceX Gives $1 Million Prize to Literal Nazi Who Has Bragged About His Profound Racism*]() ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()