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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: 2) by frojack on Friday May 05 2017, @06:59PM
They propose a lot of satellites, but I don't have any estimate if that can cover the USA or worldwide.
SpaceX wants to launch 4,425 satellites into low-Earth orbits, with altitudes ranging from 715 miles to 823 miles. By contrast, the existing HughesNet satellite network has an altitude of 22,000 miles.
Well, as you yourself mentioned the plan is for Low Earth Orbit, so any given satellite is only going to be over the US for a short-ish period.
(ISS orbits between 205 and 270 miles, and completes just under 16 orbits per day - 92-ish minutes per orbit). [wolframalpha.com]
SpaceX's plans to be at 800-miles which yields an orbital period of 111-is minutes [wolframalpha.com].
So they will be over head briefly, probably less than 15 usable minutes on any given satellite pass.
During the rest of the time, they will be serving most of the populated areas of earth, (depending on the exact orbit inclination) and the coverage should be universally quite good except for polar regions.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.