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Japan’s military tests using Starlink for communications

Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF) have been testing since March the use of SpaceX’s Starlink constellation to augment that nation’s own geosynchronous communications satellites.

Japan’s Defense Ministry signed a contract with an agent that provides SpaceX’s services to equip units of the Air, Ground and Maritime SDF with Starlink antennas and other communication devices. The SDF has been using the service at about 10 locations, including bases and camps, to verify whether there are any operational issues.

The ministry currently has two of its own X-band communication satellites in geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers above Earth for SDF units to use. The Starlink deal marks the first time the SDF is using a private-sector satellite constellation in low orbit.

An agreement with another company that provides a similar service will be concluded during the current fiscal year. [emphasis mine]

The goal is to provide Japan redundant communications capabilities in case China or Russia — both of which have become more aggressive militarily in the past few years — attempt to take out its own satellites. The highlighted sentence strongly suggests a deal with OneWeb is also being negotiated.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Steve Richter

    OT: Bob, looking forward to what you have to say about this hot stage redesign of Super Heavy and Starship. https://youtu.be/dNhrkgyNuuE https://twitter.com/mcrs987/status/1673049671630192640

    What I am noticing is that bots are flooding YouTube SpaceX related videos with Elon critical comments. Same with Tesla videos. I guess I cannot say that flooding the comment boards is consequential, but I do see Elon as a very formidable force that is blocking democrats from continuing and solidifying their control of the US government. His success at Tesla shows clearly that US car companies do not need government guaranteed loans. Twitter is poised to play a significant role in guaranteeing that all voices are heard in the 2024 election. Elon’s finances are stabilized from recent Tesla stock price rise ( Tesla is a significant AI player with its Dojo hardware. )

    There has to be a lot of pressure on Biden to have the FAA put an extended hold on launches from Boca. If SpaceX is able to achieve orbit in August/Sept his public standing and credibility will make him untouchable during this coming election cycle. Blocking Elon in Boca is their last stand.

  • Star Bird

    And the USS Star Gazer was built in the Bedford Falls Starship yards thanks to the Baily Family

  • Edward

    Steve Richter,
    I believe that SpaceX thinks they can incrementally increase the mass to orbit using this “hot staging” technique.
    _______________
    You wrote: “There has to be a lot of pressure on Biden to have the FAA put an extended hold on launches from Boca. If SpaceX is able to achieve orbit in August/Sept his public standing and credibility will make him untouchable during this coming election cycle. Blocking Elon in Boca is their last stand.

    Not only do we Americans no longer trust our government to let us find our own paths but the government is no longer following the Constitution’s directive that the government “secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

    The definition of liberty: freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
    https://www.dictionary.com/browse/liberty

    With government taking sides in politics, rewarding friends and punishing enemies, and choosing winners in commerce, we are not in a nation that enjoys the blessings of liberty. All three of these governmental actions are corruption. These three actions are a result of Obama’s influence on how America’s government works.

    Government agencies that have taken sides:
    IRS: Lois Lerner, et al, refusing certain groups from tax-free status due to suspected political views.

    FBI: Using political opposition dossier as excuse to spy on the Democrat’s political opponent. Entrapping innocent people into pondering kidnapping the Michigan Governor. Investigating parents at school board meetings as terrorists. Michael Flynning Gen. Michael Flynn. Warning news media and social media that any suspicion of Hunter Biden is untrue despite knowing that it was true.

    DOJ: Selectively prosecuting Republicans and not Democrats (e.g. prosecuting Trump for non-crimes yet not prosecuting Hillary Clinton despite overwhelming evidence of multiple federal felonies).

    Homeland Security: Telling social media and the press what is “true” to report and what is “false” to stifle. Publicly abortive attempt to create a Disinformation Governance Board. (If there is Official Disinformation, there must necessarily be Official Truths.)

    National security agencies (all): spying on President Trump for the Democratic Party.

    Congressional Police: Inviting people for tours of the Capitol Building just so that the same police can then use them for target practice, then arresting the survivors for trespassing, parading, or other minor offenses that they didn’t do yet giving them cruel and unusual punishments for those never-committed crimes.

    Marines: literally backing up Let’s Go Brandon as he accused Republicans of being fascists during his Independence Hall speech with a NAZI-like backdrop. So much for the Hatch Act.

    FAA: preventing SpaceX from testing Starship in order to punish the Democrats’ political foe, Elon Musk.

    Welcome to Obama’s fundamentally transformed, post-constitutional, dual-justice America, land of the formerly free.

  • Max

    I bet we could all help Edward with that list, like when the “Pentagon” secretly told China that if Trump makes any plans for war… They would let China know to give them warning.

    Here’s one from Scott Jensen.
    (I had heard that the propaganda everyone repeated which was claimed by every newsagency and pundant and movie star, are being scrubbed from the Internet so they can claim they never said that…)
    Now the medical journals, which are not covered under the pharmaceutical “no liability law”, are quietly erasing and scrubbing from their medical journals. Over 300 of the claims and studies that backed up the pandemic shots and procedures. 4:50
    https://rumble.com/v2v3zqn–dr.-scott-jensen-hundreds-of-medical-journals-and-scientific-articles-are-.html

    History is being rewritten.

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