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from the the-inconceivable-has-become-commonplace dept.
SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink internet satellites from Cape Canaveral:
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched 60 more Starlink internet relay satellites on Saturday, boosting the total number launched to date to 895 as the company builds out a planned constellation of thousands designed to provide global high-speed broadband service.
Running two days late because of an on-board camera issue, the Falcon 9's twice-flown first stage thundered to life at 11:31 a.m. EDT, pushing the 229-foot-tall rocket away from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. It was the California rocket builder's 19th launch so far this year and its 15th Starlink flight.
[...] With Saturday's launch, SpaceX has put 895 Starlinks into orbit, 180 of them — more satellites than any other company owns — in less than three weeks.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Monday October 26 2020, @05:33PM (1 child)
The surface area of the earth is approximately 510,072,000 sq km. In the event that we have 40,000 satellites in orbit around the earth, that would be 1 satellite per 12,751 square km. The surface area of an imaginary sphere that encompasses the earth at low earth orbit around 200miles above the surface, would be even larger. Sure, it could be somewhat annoying and troublesome for star gazing / astronomy, but the problem isn't as great as it's made out to be. At least not, yet. Also, while the Starlink constellation poses an interesting challenge to Space vehicles. It's not an unprecedented problem. Most space objects are already being tracked, because you don't want to inadvertently run into them when you launch your multi-million dollar rocket. It's definitely something to think about, but it's already regulated by various agencies.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 27 2020, @09:52PM
Assuming uniform distribution is a horrible estimation. Do you know the delta-vee needed to put something into orbit out of the equatorial plane? That's not cheap and is not often done for LEOs. Your orbital plane strongly related to your launch latitude.