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posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 13 2019, @08:38PM   Printer-friendly
from the stainless-steel-spaceship dept.

takyon, realDonaldTrump and James Orme bring us news of all things SpaceX:

SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites at Once, and More

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reveals radical Starlink redesign for 60-satellite launch

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has published the first official photo of the company's near-final Starlink design and confirmed that Falcon 9 will launch a staggering 60 satellites on May 15th.

Known internally as Starlink v0.9, this mission will not be the first launch of operational satellites, but it will be the first internal SpaceX mission with a dedicated Falcon 9 launch. Additionally, the payload will be the heaviest yet launched by SpaceX, signifying an extraordinarily ambitious first step towards realizing the company's ~12,000-satellite Starlink megaconstellation.

Put simply, SpaceX's Starlink v0.9 launch is extremely unique for several reasons. Aside from the unprecedented step of launching 60 spacecraft weighing ~13,000 kg (~30,000 lb) on a developmental mission, both the form factor of each satellite and the style of dispenser/payload adapter has never been seen before. SpaceX appears to have settled on a square dispenser with four separate quadrants for satellites. The satellites themselves look truly bizarre – it's actually difficult to discern where one spacecraft stops and the next begins. Nevertheless, it appears that each Starlink satellite is a relatively thin rectangle, possibly with a squared top and bottom. It's also possible that they are all around rectangular and that the dispenser instead has two main sections.

Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos Can Save American Households $30+ Billion with LEO Satellites

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are still in their nascency, but analysis of BroadbandNow US market pricing data suggests that the technology could save American households more than $30 billion per year by intensifying broadband competition.

LEO satellites, such as the constellations planned by Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink project and Jeff Bezos' Project Kuiper, promise to bring low-latency broadband internet to millions of Americans. LEO satellite orbit extremely close to earth, between 99 to 1200 miles versus 22,000 miles of traditional GEO satellites, which means less time to transfer information (lower latency) and a quality of service comparable to wired broadband cable and fiber providers. The arrays will be precisely mapped into massive constellations to maximize coverage.

SpaceX stacks orbital Starship sections as Elon Musk teases June 20th event

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he will provide a public update on the development status of Starship and Super Heavy in an official presentation later this summer, possibly as soon as June 20th.

Meanwhile, SpaceX's South Texas team have been busy at work on both Starhopper and a newer Starship, said by Musk to be the first orbit-capable prototype. In the last week, technicians have begun stacking several sections of the vehicle's stainless steel hull, all fabricated and welded together side-by-side. On Thursday, May 9th, this progressed to the installation of the Starship's first gently tapered nose section atop its cylindrical tank section. Likely the second- or third-to-last major stack before its aeroshell is assembled into one piece, the orbital prototype is starting to truly resemble a real Starship.

New satellites could save Americans $30B on monthly Internet bills, report says

foxnews.com/tech/new-satellites-could-save-americans-30b-on-monthly-internet-bills-report-says

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites from Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink project and Jeff Bezos' Project Kuiper could save American households more than $30 billion per year by introducing more broadband competition, according to a report from BroadbandNow.

"The arrival of this emergent technology is likely to drive down monthly internet prices for hundreds of millions of Americans," the report said. In short, the more broadband Internet services available in an area, the lower the price consumers will pay on average.

Elon Musk shows sneak peak of SpaceX's internet satellites

SpaceX satellites designed to beam internet coverage from space to under-served areas of the world have been revealed by Elon Musk ahead of their anticipated launch later this week.

The entrepreneur showed off 60 "flat-packed" satellites loaded on a Falcon 9 rocket, which could be sent into low orbit on Wednesday – but warned that its latest attempt could easily fail.

"Much will likely go wrong on first mission," Mr Musk wrote on Twitter, adding that it would take six more similar launches to reach "minor" broadband coverage and 12 for "moderate" service.

[Source: https://techerati.com/news-hub/elon-musk-shows-sneak-peak-of-spacexs-internet-satellites/]


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  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Monday May 13 2019, @09:04PM (5 children)

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Monday May 13 2019, @09:04PM (#843153)

    which part of the world will this cover?

    Or are the putting up equidistant orbits?

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Snow on Monday May 13 2019, @09:39PM

    by Snow (1601) on Monday May 13 2019, @09:39PM (#843176) Journal

    Entire world... except perhaps the extreme poles, but I suspect even they will have coverage.

    Because these Satellites are in LEO, they will always be moving relative to the ground. There is no way to offer a localized service using that orbit (unless you selectively disable the radios).

  • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:08AM (3 children)

    by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:08AM (#843204) Homepage Journal

    I would assume USA is the first target. If they launch from Cape Canaveral, the easiest inclination would be 28 degrees, but I suspect they will want to cover SoCal (headquarters) which would be ~35 degrees.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:42AM (2 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday May 14 2019, @12:42AM (#843215)

      I read they're going at least to +/-52 degrees, but I think some Ars commenter mentioned over 60 degrees.

      • (Score: 2) by richtopia on Tuesday May 14 2019, @02:05AM (1 child)

        by richtopia (3160) on Tuesday May 14 2019, @02:05AM (#843232) Homepage Journal

        52 is the inclination of the ISS thanks to launching from the Baikonur Cosmodome and Russia needing the extra inclination to avoid flying over Chinese territory during launch. While SpaceX needs to use their own launch vehicles to drive down prices, having a potential second supplier might factor into the decision making.

          It also covers a lot of the world's population, with 52 covering London and 60 covering Stockholm. My comment was thinking about the easiest initial launch for testing, but it may make more sense to mimic the final configuration as best as possible with this first launch.

        • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Tuesday May 14 2019, @05:28PM

          by nitehawk214 (1304) on Tuesday May 14 2019, @05:28PM (#843495)

          I'd guess that every single satellite will be at the same inclination so they can all be at the same altitude.

          --
          "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh