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posted by martyb on Thursday October 17 2019, @07:17AM   Printer-friendly
from the orbital-mechanics-is-circular-reasoning dept.

SpaceX submits paperwork for 30,000 more Starlink satellites

SpaceX has asked the International Telecommunication Union to arrange spectrum for 30,000 additional Starlink satellites. SpaceX, which is already planning the world's largest low-Earth-orbit broadband constellation by far, filed paperwork in recent weeks for up to 30,000 additional Starlink satellites on top of the 12,000 already approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC, on SpaceX's behalf, submitted 20 filings to the ITU for 1,500 satellites apiece in various low Earth orbits, an ITU official confirmed Oct. 15 to SpaceNews.

[...] In its filings, SpaceX said the additional 30,000 satellites would operate in low Earth orbit at altitudes ranging from 328 kilometers to 580 kilometers.

[...] It is not guaranteed that, by submitting numerous filings, SpaceX will build and launch 30,000 more satellites. Tim Farrar, a telecom analyst critical of SpaceX, tweeted that he was doubtful the ITU will be able to review such big filings in a timely manner. He sees the 20 separate filings as a SpaceX effort to "drown the ITU in studies" while proceeding with its constellation.

Nothing a Starship can't launch.

Starlink.

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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 17 2019, @02:36PM (2 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 17 2019, @02:36PM (#908318) Journal

    The volume of space surrounding Earth is large enough to accommodate millions or billions of satellites.

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @02:47PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 17 2019, @02:47PM (#908325)

    "The volume of space surrounding Earth is large enough to accommodate millions or billions of satellites."

    Yes, most of the time.

    But the tracking and control infrastructure doesn't yet know how to coordinate to make it essentially all the time.
    So, you get orbital bands. Are those in unlimited supply?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday October 17 2019, @03:06PM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday October 17 2019, @03:06PM (#908336) Journal

      They are going through the proper channels to gain permission to launch these. If it can't be done, they'll be informed of that fact. Maybe they will be asked to invest in expanding the tracking and control infrastructure as a compromise, since they'll be the world's largest user for a while.

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