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SpaceX's Starlink program launched an initial sixty satellites on May 23. At least three of these "are no longer in service" and "will passively deorbit." according to a spokesperson for the company.
In other words, the three spacecraft failed and will fall back to Earth, likely within a year because of their relatively low orbit of 273 miles (440 kilometers) above the planet's surface.
SpaceX seems relatively unfazed by the failures, though, since the company never expected all of them to function perfectly given the mission's experimental nature.
SpaceX intentionally implemented the satellites with minor variations.
On a brighter note, 45 of the satellites, which are equipped with small ion engines for maneuvering, have already reached their intended orbits. Five are moving towards their orbits, and five are pending evaluation before maneuvering. Another "[t]wo satellites are being intentionally deorbited to simulate an end of life disposal."
[N]ow that the majority of the satellites have reached their operational altitude, SpaceX will begin using the constellation to start transmitting broadband signals, testing the latency and capacity by streaming videos and playing some high bandwidth video games using gateways throughout North America.
The Starlink program was stung by early comments that the program was negatively affecting astronomy and SpaceX
added that it "continues to monitor the visibility of the satellites as they approach their final orbit" and that they will be measured for their visibility from the ground once there. Those comments are likely meant to address concerns lodged by astronomers about the reflectivity of Starlink spacecraft
The satellites are designed to completely disintegrate upon entering Earth's atmosphere, and the failures may help drive future iterations.
Previous Coverage
Most of SpaceX's Starlink Internet Satellites are Already on Track
SpaceX Satellites Pose New Headache for Astronomers
Third Time's the Charm! SpaceX Launch Good; Starlink Satellite Deployment Coming Up [Updated]
SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites: Postponed 1 Day Due to Upper Altitude Winds [UPDATE 2]
SpaceX to Launch 60 Starlink Satellites at Once, and More
SpaceX's First Dedicated Starlink Launch Set for May; Amazon Hired SpaceX Execs for Project Kuiper
(Score: 2, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Saturday June 29 2019, @07:47PM (2 children)
they can't use the three that died for their reentry tests :-(
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by looorg on Saturday June 29 2019, @10:00PM (1 child)
This is what I was wondering to after reading it, why not just reclassify the failed once for reentry testing? Or was they somehow specially belt with extra "crash and burn" sensors the others doesn't have?
(Score: 2) by NateMich on Saturday June 29 2019, @10:24PM
Based on the summary, it sounds like the failed ones are just plain broken. That would make it really hard to simulate a controlled reentry.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 29 2019, @07:48PM (21 children)
If you can get 95% of them operational for 50% of the budget, or 100% of them operational for twice as much, which way you gonna roll?
That depends on whether you're a private business, or a government agency with a mission to demonstrate "missile superiority."
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Saturday June 29 2019, @07:53PM (19 children)
All 60 of them probably have to die (before ~7 year max lifespan). They don't have sat-to-sat communications like the final Starlink sats will, so they may be much less useful.
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday June 29 2019, @08:01PM (15 children)
So, if you can launch a system today with a promise to bring all the birds down within 7 years, or you have to fight for permission to launch the real system for 10 years, which way you gonna roll? Cost of doing business, and maybe justifiably so - if they can demonstrate capability with these kinds of launches it makes it less likely that they're just tossing a bunch of junk into orbit (like the US and Russia did for 20+ years...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday June 29 2019, @08:16PM
Depending on how fast they iterate the design, the 55 remaining sats and other sats launched without sat-to-sat may be an insignificant portion of the total. They can just kill them when they have BFR spewing Starlink sats in a couple years.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 29 2019, @09:40PM (13 children)
(Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:07PM (9 children)
Cost of installing wired, cable, or fiber in non-urban areas is more than the incumbents want to spend, so Starlink is looking to make their push there.
Also, the sats are orbiting the entire Earth, so there is bound to be an opportunity in countries besides just the USS.
Another huge $$$ market is providing comms to ships. I have read rates on the order of hundreds or even thousands of dollars per day Think not just passenger cruise ships, but also commercial transport like tankers, bulk ore, and container ships.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:13PM (2 children)
There will be at least one type of Starlink customer in major cities. Fintechs in New York City and London.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:09AM (1 child)
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 30 2019, @06:40AM
I watched the video a couple weeks ago. The ground-based gateways won't serve some fixed set of satellites. The sats are constantly in motion, shifting position. Some entire system will be constantly shuffling data between sats, as well as between gateways. That process, in and of itself, will require a great deal of computational power. It stands to reason, that if some region starts bottlenecking on the ground, a new gateway of six will be installed in that region. Or, the algorithm will be changed to compensate. The thing to remember is, it's all a work in process. At this point in time, they've tossed a small constellation up in the skies, to learn from.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Sunday June 30 2019, @12:34AM (3 children)
Wait, didn't I see this movie already? I want to call it Inmarsat, but that might be wrong - it was some kind of doomed AT&T and maybe Motorola thing that put up a perfectly serviceable swarm of satellites for handheld mobile communication, but the handsets were too big and too expensive and the whole thing basically imploded financially.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:12AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmarsat [wikipedia.org]
The big difference is now is that the sats are in low-Earth orbit, which improves things considerably. SpaceX's ability to pack in flat sats and use their own cheap launcher will go a long way to making the constellation a reality. BFR will seal the deal.
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(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:52PM (1 child)
Iridium? [wikipedia.org]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday June 30 2019, @02:38PM
That's the one!
I have a friend who lost a ton on Iridium stock...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:43PM (1 child)
I assume the USS is a country halfway between the US and the USSR, right? :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Monday July 01 2019, @12:37PM
Given the time-honored keyboard sequence of ASDF, I would say USS comes right after USA and right before USD. =)
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 30 2019, @06:34AM (1 child)
"Cities" may be a losing proposition - maybe. Though, I rather doubt that. But, the cities aren't the real target. Past articles published here have shown how a suburb five or ten miles from a city center might have zero choices, or one poor choice, of "broadband" service available. It isn't just the poorest of neighborhoods, either. It's probably safe to say that all of the wealthiest neighborhoods are covered. Either availability attracted the wealthy, or the wealth attracted the availability, but the rest of us have scant pickings.
Terrain is a serious concern in some parts of the country. West Virginia has entire villages and towns contained in a valley, where wireless doesn't work, and wire is difficult to install. Starlink should reach all, or nearly all, of that terrain.
I strongly suspect that if Starlink can live up to more than half of it's claims, people will flock to them for business. People from all demographics, from all parts of the country - from all countries. The US may have the worst developed internet of all developed countries, but there are other nations where things are even worse. Ever wonder how good the internet is, in some village in the mountainous part of Nigeria? You're likely to get the response, "What is internet?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:26PM
Cities aren't a losing proposition. I've got exactly two providers in my area (large metro area and state capitol) and they both suck. A few blocks from me is an area Google Fiber has planned to expand to, and quelle shock, service is head a shoulders better there from the same two providers; better speeds available, and for lower prices. I bet service in my area mysteriously improves as soon as this spins up, but I expect I'll be switching as soon as possible if Starlink gets barely decent reviews (since the current providers have horrible reviews).
(Score: 2) by takyon on Sunday June 30 2019, @04:25PM
Dense cities are not the target for Starlink, but suburban users could use it. Rather than the cities, look at the people living in 1-2 story homes 20 miles away from the cities. There are a lot of them.
As for rural users, it could be a godsend. They'll apparently get the best experience with Starlink, which is a role reversal.
Then you have most other countries on Earth, minus a few firewalled ones. A lot of potential customers. Even in poorer African countries, you could have subscribers around the place reselling the service to nearby phone users.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Username on Sunday June 30 2019, @09:55PM (2 children)
I bet they can with a firmware update. well, long as they have working radios. I think it's just their way of saying they have half the radios of the final sats.
(Score: 2) by dry on Monday July 01 2019, @12:09AM (1 child)
Supposed to be done with lasers, which these sats don't have.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Username on Monday July 01 2019, @11:49AM
It started with sharks, and now we're onto satellites with laser beams.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 29 2019, @09:12PM
57/60 is terrible! Only an incel would be proud of such a track record. They'll all be failed by next week at that rate!
We should be giving more money to the Pentagon and ULA instead of letting dorks on a couch into space. Anybody who has plenty of sex with people who have regular menstruation can see that musky rockets are just penis size compensation. We need to be blowing our ICBM load all over Iran and Russia, not wasting this tech like incels!
Biden 2020!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 29 2019, @10:47PM (1 child)
Anyone keeping track? Do we add Grimes to this list?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:37PM
Better to have a grimy blowjob than get MeToo'd by Amber Heard.