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SpaceX to Launch Broadband Satellites With Latency as Low as 25ms in 2019

posted by on Friday May 05 2017, @05:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the wireless-everything dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

SpaceX today said its planned constellation of 4,425 broadband satellites will launch from the Falcon 9 rocket beginning in 2019 and continue launching in phases until reaching full capacity in 2024.

SpaceX gave the Senate Commerce Committee an update on its satellite plans during a broadband infrastructure hearing this morning via testimony by VP of satellite government affairs Patricia Cooper. Satellite Internet access traditionally suffers from high latency, relatively slow speeds, and strict data caps. But as we reported in November, SpaceX says it intends to solve these problems with custom-designed satellites launched into low-Earth orbits.

SpaceX mentioned 2019 as a possible launch date in an application filed with the Federal Communications Commission in November and offered a more specific launch timeline today.

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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Friday May 05 2017, @06:26PM (2 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Friday May 05 2017, @06:26PM (#505063) Journal

    10 times that number of satellites orbiting very low would still give the appearance of empty skys for any re-entering vehicle. Earth is a big place.

    There are easily 6000 commercial aircraft in the sky on any normal flight day.

    This site gives you a birds eye view of the busy areas
    http://www.businessinsider.com/flight-radar-planes-2015-8 [businessinsider.com] and it doesn't even cover Russia and China, and doesn't pick up small general aviation planes.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 05 2017, @10:17PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday May 05 2017, @10:17PM (#505192)

    Commercial airplanes are pretty visible, and don't travel at over 7km/s. Every orbiting object threatens a pretty big arc, which you don't want to intersect unless you also match its speed and direction.

    Space is mind-boggingly huge, but adding another 5000 things, plus launcher spare parts, up there, must change the probably of getting hit from "no worries" to "check before you cross" (still proportional to how big of a target you are). They already have to move the ISS a bit every now and then, to be safe.

    • (Score: 2) by frojack on Friday May 05 2017, @10:25PM

      by frojack (1554) on Friday May 05 2017, @10:25PM (#505195) Journal

      These things are big, and show up on radar, and traveling in predictable paths. I'm not seeing the issue here. Even the ISS only has to dodge junk once or twice a year.

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