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SpaceX / TwitterSuccessful deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed! pic.twitter.com/hA8eUp7dNI
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 7, 2020
US ROCKET COMPANY SpaceX, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, launched 60 more mini internet satellites late last night to test a dark coating to appease stargazers.
It’s a “first step” compromise between SpaceX and astronomers fearful of having dark skies spoiled by hundreds and, eventually, thousands of bright satellites circling overhead.
The Falcon 9 rocket blasted into the sky, recycled by SpaceX for its fourth flight.
As the first-stage booster flew to a vertical landing on an ocean platform, the Starlink satellites continued hurtling toward orbit to join 120 similar spacecraft launched last year.
An hour later, all 60 satellites were free of their upper stage and making their own way in orbit.
The commentator’s Starlink fleet now numbering 180, SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk plans to ultimately launch thousands of these compact flat-panel satellites to provide global internet service.
Each spacecraft weighs 260 kilograms.
After the first Starlink batch of 60 was launched in May and the second in November, astronomers complained how the bright satellite chain was hampering their observations.
In response, SpaceX came up with a darkening treatment to lessen reflectivity. The coating is being tested on one of the newly launched satellites.
Jeff Hall, director of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, said the Starlinks have been just an occasional problem so far, but noted the risk to stargazing will grow as the constellation expands and other companies launch their own fleets.
He heads the American Astronomical Society’s committee on light pollution, space debris, and radio interference and is working with SpaceX on the issue.
He said it’s too soon to know whether the dark coating will work, “but it definitely is just a first step and not enough to mitigate the issues astronomy will experience with the Starlinks.”
The Starlinks are initially placed in a relatively low orbit of 290 kilometetres, easily visible as a long, strung-out cluster parading through the night sky.
Over a few months, krypton-powered thrusters raise the satellites to a 550 kilometre orbit.
The higher the orbit, the less visible the satellites are from the ground, according to SpaceX. The company said it is supplying astronomy groups with the satellite coordinates in advance so they can avoid the bright flyover times.
Already established in launching satellites for others and making space station deliveries for NASA, SpaceX is among several companies looking to provide high-speed, reliable internet service around the world, especially in places where it’s hard to get or too expensive.
SpaceX may start service later this year in the US and Canada, before expanding to the world’s most populated areas after 24 launches.
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Do you think our government is familiar with Starlink’s plan (which is well under way) to put 42,000 satellites in orbit, bringing high speed broadband to everywhere on Earth? Shur, let’s spend a couple of billion running fibre to every farmhouse anyway.
@Paraic: I’ve be repeating this fact ad nauseum. No money for fine gaels buddies in providing a sensible solution.
@Paraic: They are hoping to have enough satellites for global coverage by the end of this year. Even if things go badly for them, the service will probably still be available before fibres get installed countrywide.
@The Risen: Fair point regarding cost, but this Starlink plan is not the solution. The current 4G is cheaper and more reliable than anything Starlink can offer and 5G will be far superior. As it’s customer base will be limited it will be expensive if they hope to make a profit or break even. Doesn’t help that, on a worldwide scale, internet blackspots tend to be in poorer areas where people will least be able to afford this expensive option. Wonder if Elon has tested the system by trying to make a WiFi call ? If he has he’ll already have noticed a flaw in his plan which he can’t get around without somehow bending the laws of physics.
@Tommy Roche: 4G is terrible in most parts of the country, very low speeds. This will be a much higher speed guaranteed.
@The Risen: what about security of supply?? You think we should outsource all our utilities to international companies because they have a good online presence and not use Irish utilities companies??
@Tommy Roche: I’m sure they know more that you about what they are doing….
@Paraic: you really shouldn’t comment on things you so obviously know nothing about.
How this guy has time to take even a toilet break is beyond me
@thomas patrick: last time he did that he ended up in court
@thomas patrick: Because he does very little of the actual work himself. He’s more of an engineering patron than anything else. He’s not particularly hands on with the actual development of these projects, usually just approving them or passing on a conceptual idea to his development teams.
@Brendan Gordon: is he not the chief engineer at spacex?
@Brendan Gordon: He is chief engineer at Space X and Tesla and has a role in product development with Solar City, always pains me to see the typical Irish trying to downplay this mans achievements, when they could never achieve what he has over several life times.
Surveillance gone mad. Only a matter of time before we are all microchipped for ‘convenience’
@Jeremiah A Craic: i was watching a program on Channel 4 the other night documenting the future cashless societies in the documentary there were some who had contactless devices placed under their skin on their hands the devices were used to pay for items open secure areas security deposit boxes etc.
@Jeremiah A Craic: the phone you just typed this on will do all that already. They can track your every movement with every ping. They know your thoughts with your google search too. They’ve won.
Great thanks for adding to the space debris, when we done destroying one planet let’s take it to the next level, the universe
@Jason: really?? That’s what you are having a moan about??? We are now making the universe dirty?? Some of the nonsense coming out these days is from people that think we should go back to living in caves…
Of course flat earther claim this is all a lie. They claim satellites are sent up using balloons. Pictures of relays using ballons have been used as proof.
More junk in space. So much for a green agenda.
@Daniel Kelly: Blah Blah Blah,, something else to moan about Daniel??
have your say