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posted by martyb on Saturday June 29 2019, @07:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the 95%-success dept.

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


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by martyb on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:07PM (9 children)

    by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:07PM (#861462) Journal
    It's not that cities are a losing proposition, but that the limited capability of the swarm of sats would be oversubscribed and result in limited bandwidth per subscriber. Existing wired, cable, or fiber can provide a better bang-for-the-buck than what Starlink can do.

    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.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:13PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday June 29 2019, @11:13PM (#861463) Journal

    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)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:09AM (#861494)
      They will be worried about latency. Also, it is not clear yet what bandwidths (bit rates) can be used. Gateways might become a bottleneck, as they need to handle all the traffic of all the sats that they serve.
      • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday June 30 2019, @06:40AM

        by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday June 30 2019, @06:40AM (#861559) Journal

        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)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday June 30 2019, @12:34AM (#861481)

    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.

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  • (Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:43PM (1 child)

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Sunday June 30 2019, @01:43PM (#861610) Journal

    countries besides just the USS.

    I assume the USS is a country halfway between the US and the USSR, right? :-)

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    • (Score: 2) by martyb on Monday July 01 2019, @12:37PM

      by martyb (76) Subscriber Badge on Monday July 01 2019, @12:37PM (#861891) Journal

      countries besides just the USS.

      I assume the USS is a country halfway between the US and the USSR, right? :-)

      Given the time-honored keyboard sequence of ASDF, I would say USS comes right after USA and right before USD. =)

      --
      Wit is intellect, dancing.