A detailed update on SpaceX’s Starlink satellite constellation
Link here. With yesterday’s launch, SpaceX now has put 420 satellites in orbit.
In a recent interview with Aviation Week, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that they should begin beta testing the network this year and would want to complete around 14 launches before publicly promoting Starlink service. That could allow service to begin as soon as early 2021 depending on how fast launches can be performed.
In a recent ITU filing, SpaceX laid out a very aggressive schedule for continuing the Starlink deployment, with 13 launches in the May to September time period. This schedule is likely to spread out a bit as they run into normal launch cadence issues such as weather, range coordination, booster recovery operations, and booster refurbishment.
The first launch in that group (June 3 in Florida) has been delayed nearly a month for the above reasons. Regardless of exactly how long those launches end up taking, Ms. Shotwell’s comments indicate SpaceX doesn’t think satellite production will be a gating factor for their deployments in the near future.
An interesting feature of the schedule is that after this frenzy of launches, there would be a gap with only one launch in four months, followed by a period of twice-monthly launches to finish out the initial 1584 satellite shell of the constellation. SpaceX may have options to make changes to the satellites during that pause in the deployments, such as adding the optical inter-satellite links that have been mentioned as debuting later in 2020.
The article then provides a great deal of information about the system’s design and status for beginning operations in the U.S. Well worth a close read.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Link here. With yesterday’s launch, SpaceX now has put 420 satellites in orbit.
In a recent interview with Aviation Week, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said that they should begin beta testing the network this year and would want to complete around 14 launches before publicly promoting Starlink service. That could allow service to begin as soon as early 2021 depending on how fast launches can be performed.
In a recent ITU filing, SpaceX laid out a very aggressive schedule for continuing the Starlink deployment, with 13 launches in the May to September time period. This schedule is likely to spread out a bit as they run into normal launch cadence issues such as weather, range coordination, booster recovery operations, and booster refurbishment.
The first launch in that group (June 3 in Florida) has been delayed nearly a month for the above reasons. Regardless of exactly how long those launches end up taking, Ms. Shotwell’s comments indicate SpaceX doesn’t think satellite production will be a gating factor for their deployments in the near future.
An interesting feature of the schedule is that after this frenzy of launches, there would be a gap with only one launch in four months, followed by a period of twice-monthly launches to finish out the initial 1584 satellite shell of the constellation. SpaceX may have options to make changes to the satellites during that pause in the deployments, such as adding the optical inter-satellite links that have been mentioned as debuting later in 2020.
The article then provides a great deal of information about the system’s design and status for beginning operations in the U.S. Well worth a close read.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Good article. This is the first one that actually talks about the connection speed: 100Mbps down/40Mbps up. All the past articles I have read described a speed of 1Gb. Still that 100Mbps service is better than what I have now.
Still no price per month. I know there was talk about the price of the receiver being anywhere from $150 to $300.
Actually, there are now 475 working Starlink birds in orbit – 55 of the 0.9 version and 420 of the 1.0 version. It looks as though the minimum number required to begin service in at least part of the U.S. and Canada could be in place by somewhere between Labor Day and Halloween. The initial service area could be significantly expanded by year’s end.
Okay, forget what I just wrote above. Egg on my face is what I deservedly get for not reading the linked article first.
The remaining 55 version 0.9 birds are all in the process of being de-orbited. Combined with a few reported stillbirths and crib deaths among the version 1.0 birds, there are about 410 – 415 good units currently up. I also didn’t realize it takes roughly two months to get a bird from deployment orbit up to operational orbit. So that “early 2021” timeframe for an initial service offering in the linked story is looking about right.
Given the number of customer launches still to come in 2020, launching another dozen or so Starlink missions by year’s end is going to make for busy times at KSC and Canaveral the rest of this year. That can probably still be done without requiring any new pad turnaround records being set via judicious scheduling of LC-39A and SLC-40, but there probably will be a lot more 10-to-14-day pad turnarounds than we’ve ever seen before over a sustained period. To minimize demand on the two drone ships and the two fairing catchers, every opportunity for an LZ-1 landing is certain to be taken. The three launches currently scheduled from Vandenberg in Nov. and Dec. look like they will come just in time to relieve a bit of pressure in FL and still allow for a maximum push at KSC and Canaveral at the same time.
Add in the full court press being put on Starship – and perhaps even Super Heavy before long – at Boca Chica and it seems there is likely to be significant SpaceX news at least once a week from now into the indefinite future.
On another matter, Bob, could you re-post the instructions for submitting Evening Pause candidates? I can’t seem to find them anywhere with the site search tool.
Dick Eagleton: The instructions for suggesting evening pauses are not on the website. I will email them to you.
Dick-
if I may….
Mr. Z’s email address is in the “about’ section, bottom of the text. Put “evening pause” in the Subject line and submit.