SpaceX 'StarLink' satellite service [Starlink & Starshield at war]

[Dr Mordrid]

Perfect launch & stage landing

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Replying to @SpaceX
All 60 Starlink satellites online, solar array deployment coming up soon
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Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Krypton ion thrusters activate in about 3 hours to raise orbit
12:42 AM - May 24, 2019

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX ✔ @SpaceX
Falcon 9 launches 60 Starlink satellites to orbit – targeting up to 6 Starlink launches this year and will accelerate our cadence next year to put ~720 satellites in orbit for continuous coverage of most populated areas on Earth
11:34 AM - May 24, 2019

[Dr Mordrid]

The StarLink website is up. Tip: the globe is 3D, and movable. Just drag.

https://www.starlink.com/

Scratch one more milestone,

Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Replying to @elonmusk @SpaceX
Krypton ion thrusters activate in about 3 hours to raise orbit
|
Elon Musk ✔ @elonmusk
Krypton thrusters operative, satellites initiating orbit raise every 90 mins
8:19 PM - May 24, 2019

[Dr Mordrid]

The StarLink Train....seen from the ground

Via Vimeo

Marco Langbroek

The train of Starlink satellites passing over Leiden, the Netherlands, about 22.5 hours after launch.

Video with WATEC 902H + Canon FD 1.8/50 mm lens, GPS time inserter.

https://vimeo.com/338361997

[Dr Mordrid]

Another StarLink swarm video

[Dr Mordrid]

Starlink 480.jpg

Starlink is targeted to offer service in the Northern U.S. and Canadian latitudes after six launches, rapidly expanding to global coverage of the populated world after an expected 24 launches. SpaceX is targeting two to six Starlink launches by the end of this year.

SpaceX

https://www.starlink.com/

[Dr Mordrid]

Space News has a write-up about the expansion to 30,000 StarLink satellites.

The first launch of operational satellites (the first was a test group) comes later this month or early November. More this year, then about 24 StarLink launches in 2020.

https://spacenews.com/spacex-submits...nk-satellites/

SpaceX submits paperwork for 30,000 more Starlink satellites

WASHINGTON SpaceX has asked the International Telecommunication Union to arrange spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites.*

SpaceX, which is already planning the worlds largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation by far, filed paperwork in recent weeks for up to 30,000 additional Starlink satellites on top of the 12,000 already approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.
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Here is SpaceXs full statement:

"As demand escalates for fast, reliable internet around the world, especially for those where connectivity is non-existent, too expensive or unreliable, SpaceX is taking steps to responsibly scale Starlinks total network capacity and data density to meet the growth in users anticipated needs."

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX needs 6-8 launches for Starlink to go live in the US, and is expecting to launch 4 batches this year and up to 24 next year.

The USAF test is with just one flight of satellites up and will get faster with more.

SpaceX plans to start offering Starlink broadband services in 2020

WASHINGTON - SpaceX is confident it can start offering broadband service in the United States via its Starlink constellation in mid-2020, the company's president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell said Oct. 22.

Getting there will require the company to launch six to eight batches of satellites, Shotwell told reporters during a media roundtable. SpaceX also has to finish the design and engineering of the user terminals, which is not a minor challenge, Shotwell acknowledged.
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Shotwell said many of the Starlink features are being tested by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory under a program called Global Lightning. SpaceX in December 2018 received a $28 million contract to test over the next three years different ways in which the military might use Starlink broadband services. So far, SpaceX has demonstrated data throughout of 610 megabits per second in flight to the cockpit of a U.S. military C-12 twin-engine turboprop aircraft.
>

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell told a Barron's investor conference in NYC they need 1,200 satellites to provide worldwide StarLink coverage.

SpaceX has 1,500 StarLink satellites ready to launch, Flight Provenâ„¢ Falcon 9 boosters stashed all around Cape Canaveral, and they've already started test production of the home user terminals - using SpaceX employees as "guinea pig customers."

Hiring for the full production of terminals in Seattle has already commenced.

[Dr Mordrid]

StarLink's satellite-to-satellite laser interlinks go live next year, closing the mesh constellation.

Gwynne Shotwell,

CNN...

>
The 60 satellites that we already flew are capable of operations, but the next version will have upgraded technology. By late next year, we'll be flying satellite with lasers that allow them to talk to each other in space and share data, which ensures customers will never lose service.
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In countries where we can, we are likely to go directly to consumers. We'll have the full team of salespeople and tech support. Though, the better engineering that we do on the user terminal, the less service people we will need.
>

[Dilitante1]

The thing I can't grasp is how with so many (1500-10s of thousands) does this NOT impede launch windows for anything else into orbit? Launch windows are 1-2 hours at best lately and I see them dropping much smaller as StarLink ramps up satellites in orbit. It is a much lower orbit than most satellites but for the mesh to work there needs to be close proximity and that equates in my head as "junk" to try to steer around when launching....

[Dr Mordrid]

The thing I can't grasp is how with so many (1500-10s of thousands) does this NOT impede launch windows for anything else into orbit? Launch windows are 1-2 hours at best lately and I see them dropping much smaller as StarLink ramps up satellites in orbit.

Most wide launch windows are to allow a fudge factor for handling mechanical or weather problems.

For rendezvous launches, such as Dragon launching to ISS, the window is instantaneous; they go at xx:xx;xx.xxx hours or not at all.

It is a much lower orbit than most satellites but for the mesh to work there needs to be close proximity and that equates in my head as "junk" to try to steer around when launching....

Let's go with a worst case; SpaceX has 42,000 StarLink birds in orbit.

Try to visualize 42,000 people distributed evenly across the Earth's 510,000,000 km² surface area. Each of those people will have 12,142.8 km² to themselves - almost 2x the size of Delaware. Now expand that sphere to Earth + 2x(350 or 550) km. They're even further apart.

You could send all the USAF bomber wings out, randomly dropping their loads, and not hit one soul. The same goes for an unplanned rocket launch, but very few will be unplanned.

Every StarLink bird will be tracked by NORAD, and their positions given to launch operators so they can shoot the gaps. In return, an approaching satellite's position and track will be sent to each StarLink birds AI so it can move out of the way using their Krypton Hall-effect thrusters. Besides the autonomy there will be manual supervision and control.

[Dr Mordrid]

First hard number for StarLinks/Starship.

Shotwell at the Baron Fund investor conference in NYC.

CNBC...

>
Once SpaceX is flying Starship regularly, she said the rocket will be able to launch nearly seven times as many Starlink satellites at once.

"Starship can take 400 satellites at a time," Shotwell said.
>

This would use the Starship satellite deployer, AKA "Chomper."

Yes, it looks like Bird One from 'You Only Live Twice.'

EFugweWX0Ag39BD.jpg

[Dr Mordrid]

SpaceFlightNow reports StarLink 1 (first launch of the v1.0 satellites)

Date: Monday, November 11
Time: ~1000 Eastern (~1500 UTC)

Rub: that's Veterans Day, a US federal holiday

[Dr Mordrid]

Starlink 1

Static fire complete

Date: November 11, 2019

Window: 0951-1002 Eastern (1451-1502 UTC)

Core: B1048-4, Flight Provenâ„¢ on Iridium NEXT-7, SAOCOM 1A and Nusantara Satu/Beresheet

Fairings: Flight Provenâ„¢ on Falcon Heavy ArabSat 6A

Recovery: booster (ASDS Of Course I Still Love You) & fairings (Ms. Tree & Ms. Chief)

Payload: 60 Starlink 1.0 satellites, part of the first flock of 1,584

Final orbit: 550 km (342 mi)

Inclination: 53°