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SpaceX cuts broadband-satellite altitude in half to prevent space debris

Rejected submission by Freeman at 2019-04-29 20:48:14 from the I need this now dept.
Science

SpaceX has received Federal Communications Commission approval to halve the orbital altitude of more than 1,500 planned broadband satellites in order to lower the risk of space debris and improve latency. ... SpaceX later asked for permission to operate 1,584 of those satellites at an altitude of 550km instead of the previously authorized 1,150km.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/04/spacex-changes-broadband-satellite-plan-to-limit-debris-and-lower-latency/ [arstechnica.com]

Doing a quick conversion for theoretical limits. The speed of light is 299,792km/sec and the 1 way distance is 550km. (550km/299,792km)*2 should get you the absolute best round trip travel time of approximately 3.6 milliseconds. So, the claim of as low as 15ms seems to be plausible. Here's hoping for a steady 30ms ping in practice. I don't even get that with my barely there 4G LTE at my house.


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