SpaceX does it again!!! + Rolling out Starlink

[Catfish]

Fascinating, well done!


I wonder what they do to keep exact position and orbit.. or do they have to be replaced after some time.
So if there is position correction, do they have small jets, or is it done by "sunwind" pressure

[Onkel Neal]

Yep, they have small ion thrusters to move them around and keep them in place, and from what I have read, they are designed to be deorbited as newer tech is developed to replace them. As a property of their low Earth orbit by design, this will be routine:

... there’s the matter of attrition, as satellites will begin to deorbit after a few years and SpaceX will need to replace them regularly in order to maintain its constellation. In fact, Hugh Lewis – the UK Space Agency’s representative on the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee – recently stated that in order to maintain a constellation of just 4425 satellites, SpaceX will have to launch that many every five years.

However, SpaceX intends to use this to their advantage by gradually replacing inactive satellites with ones that offer superior performance. In this way, the constellation will gradually be upgraded with the addition of heavier satellites that are capable of transmitting more information, and which are placed in longer-lasting, higher orbits."

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/24/sp...60-satellites/

[Onkel Neal]

SpaceX is targeting launches March 6 and March 11 for its next two missions after swapping an upper stage for its next Falcon 9 rocket with another stage already being readied for liftoff at Cape Canaveral.

The launch targeted for March 6 from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station will send a Dragon supply ship toward the International Space Station with nearly three tons of cargo, crew provisions and experiments, including a new mounting platform for external research payloads outside the station’s European Columbus lab module.

Liftoff is scheduled for 11:50 p.m. EST on March 6 (0450 GMT on March 7) on SpaceX’s fifth Falcon 9 flight of the year.

SpaceX teams a few miles to the north at Kennedy Space Center’s launch pad 39A will prepare a separate Falcon 9 launcher for liftoff as soon as March 11 at 10:40 a.m. EDT (1440 GMT). That mission will loft approximately 60 more satellites for SpaceX’s Starlink Internet network, which is expected to take up the bulk of the company’s 2020 launch manifest.

https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/02/2...lcon-9-launch/

[mapuc]

Looks like not everyone is happy about this

For the ESO facility, which houses the current Very Large Telescope and upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, one-in-30 long exposures will be affected by the satellite trails during twilight hours, and one-in-200 will be affected for shorter exposures.

Musk has said that they are working on lowering the albedo of future Starlink satellites, so they will have lower reflectivity, and that they will "tweak satellite orientation to minimize solar reflection during critical astronomical experiments" when needed, but is it enough?

https://www.iflscience.com/space/thi...USXYiSUvtUjTRM

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

They'll have to learn to live with it.

[Sean C]

Yeah. Because who cares about discovering the secrets of the origins (and possible future) of the universe when everyone on the planet can look at pictures of cats?

[Onkel Neal]

You have think of the greater good. A billion people use the internet every day, not so many worry about staring at the stars. Plus, you are using the internet to say we shouldn't have internet for other people.

[mapuc]

I thinik you totally missunderstod my last post.

I myself think it's great idea giving the entire world the possibility to access the Internet and not just us in the industrial part of the world.

It was in my news feed and when I read the article I remembered this thread, so I posted here with some quotes and link.

As it says between the lines in the article - Not everyone is happy about this project

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

Starlink mission 5 has successfully launched its payload of Starlink satellites just now. This launch will mark SpaceX's sixth batch of Starlink satellites and bring the number of satellites in orbit for the megaconstellation to 360. The mission is called Starlink 5, with the first Starlink mission in 2019 being an unnumbered test flight.

First stage booster recovery was a failure. This was the 5th launch for this booster but they were unable to land it. Appeared to be an engine failure and Space X knew it long before the booster re-entered, they cut away from the camera.

The Space X rep said these had a special coating to reduce the optical sig for atronomers. They also mention some kind of shade covers that will also decrease the optics.

[Sean C]

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

Plus, you are using the internet to say we shouldn't have internet for other people.

Fair point.

Originally Posted by Onkel Neal

The Space X rep said these had a special coating to reduce the optical sig for atronomers. They also mention some kind of shade covers that will also decrease the optics.

Glad to hear that.

[Onkel Neal]

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesm...fAYz5p10j-0BSE

SpaceX: Starlink DarkSat shows 'a notable reduction' in brightness

Astronomers have been vocal about Starlink satellites appearing too bright in the night sky. Many worried that the constellation could interfere with their astronomical observations. Starlink is launched in clusters of 60 satellites per mission, they are especially bright soon after launch, visible in train-like formations when flying at lower altitudes before reaching a higher, operational orbit (pictured below). SpaceX officials said the satellites' reflectivity was a surprise and that engineers are actively working on a solution to decrease Starlink satellites' brightness. "We certainly knew this was a novel spacecraft design in a novel architecture, but the level of brightness and visibility was a surprise to us," said Patricia Cooper, Vice President of satellite government affairs at SpaceX, who represented the company at the a American Astronomical Society meeting this year.

The founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, shared that engineers are in the process of developing a "sunshade." The satellite "sunshade" would deploy like an umbrella to cover the satellite in order to reduce its visibility from Earth. Anderson shared that the experimental Starlink satellite with the "sunshade" will be tested on a future mission.

Musk stated he does not believe Starlink would have a negative effect on astronomy. "I am confident that we not cause any impact whatsoever in astronomical discoveries," he said. "Zero. That’s my prediction. We will take corrective action if it’s above zero."

[Onkel Neal]

FCC approves SpaceX to deploy up to 1 million small antennas for Starlink internet network

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/20/fcc-...-internet.html

SpaceX got a key government license last week, federal filings reveal, as the company clears a regulatory hurdle that moves it closer to offering a new high-speed internet service from space.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has authorized SpaceX to begin rolling out as many as 1 million of the ground antenna the company will need to connect users to its Starlink satellite internet network. Starlink is SpaceX’s plan to build an interconnected network, or “constellation,” of about 12,000 small satellites, to provide high-speed internet to anywhere in the world. The company has launched 360 Starlink satellites in the past year.

The license details that each ground antenna is 0.48 meters in diameter, or just under 19 inches across.

“It looks like a UFO on a stick,” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in an interview earlier this month. “It’s very important that you don’t need a specialist to install. The goal is for ... just two instructions and they can be done in either order: Point at sky, plug in.”

Starlink is intended for about the 3% “hardest to reach customers” for telecommunications companies, in rural areas where “5G is really not well-suited,” Musk said. SpaceX intends Starlink to have a high-speed connection for any users, with latency below 20 milliseconds.

[mapuc]

Saw some of these Starlink satellite some hours ago.

They were heading from south to north - They came over the horizon from my right(south) and passede over my head to left where they disappeared..Didn't count them, guess I saw 5 to 6 of them.

They were small yellow in colour.

Going to see if I can see them again tomorrow(If I remember it)

Markus

[Rockstar]

No I dont like the idea of polluting earth, space and cluttering the night sky for faster internet so people can just complain to more people about global warming on the internet.




BUT! Rocket launches are still waay kewl to watch

[Jimbuna]

Great share