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cageymaru
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SpaceX has won FCC approval to launch 7,518 Starlink low Earth orbit internet satellites into space. These satellites will initially create a blanket of internet coverage for the USA, but the program is expected to expand worldwide as SpaceX seeks to broaden the network to 12,000 units. Kepler Communications and LeoSat also won FCC approval to place low Earth orbit satellites into space. The Ku-band and Ka-band satellites from SpaceX will be created in-house. Half of the satellites must be placed into space within 6 years and the rest within 9 years. For fun, I am including a video of the SpaceX Es'hail-2 Mission satellite launch to provide internet for the Middle East and North Africa that was done yesterday.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the constellations that advanced today are evidence of a major shift in space activities, since the number of approved satellites nearly equals the 8,126 objects that have been launched into space since Sputnik in 1957. "Do the math: it adds up to a next generation space race," she said. "New commercial models, players and technologies are all coming together and rapidly multiplying the range of satellite services. With these new services come all kinds of opportunities."
Of the four, SpaceX is by far the largest with 7,518 satellites constituting what it calls a "very low Earth orbit," or VLEO constellation that would operate slightly below 350-kilometers. At that altitude, SpaceX says atmospheric drag would pull spent satellites down in one month, assuaging concerns about the magnitude of debris that that many satellites could create in higher orbits.
FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel said the constellations that advanced today are evidence of a major shift in space activities, since the number of approved satellites nearly equals the 8,126 objects that have been launched into space since Sputnik in 1957. "Do the math: it adds up to a next generation space race," she said. "New commercial models, players and technologies are all coming together and rapidly multiplying the range of satellite services. With these new services come all kinds of opportunities."
Of the four, SpaceX is by far the largest with 7,518 satellites constituting what it calls a "very low Earth orbit," or VLEO constellation that would operate slightly below 350-kilometers. At that altitude, SpaceX says atmospheric drag would pull spent satellites down in one month, assuaging concerns about the magnitude of debris that that many satellites could create in higher orbits.
