Watch SpaceX launch a Falcon 9 rocket packed with Starlink satellites this Star Wars Day - Today 3pm Eastern

Space.com ^ | 05/04/21 | Space Today

[SunkenCiv]

They can’t build it (yet, if ever), but that doesn’t stop them from using “anti-discrimination” BS passed by politicians on the take, in order to infiltrate all our spy and security assets.

[Freee-dame]

SpaceX is an amazing venture. President Trump gave perhaps the best speech of his life when SpaceX launched last year. Of course most of the leftist media did not even broadcast the speech.

[SunkenCiv]

• Washington emergency responders first to use SpaceX’s Starlink internet in the field: ‘It’s amazing’
• Air Force considers SpaceX Starlink for military applications [Slashgear]
• SpaceX receives contract to build missile tracking satellites for the Defense Department [The Verge]

[Western Phil]

How many customers will it take to overload the system? If its like everything else, advertised service will not meet expectations. Real physics is a hard master.

[srmanuel]

12,000 satellites or maybe 42,000 thousand satellites should be sufficient.....

In effect each one of these satellites is a carrior class router capable of millions of transactions per second....

Major worldwide networks don’t have that many routers in their networks, throw in optical communication between satellites and you will have major major throughput....

Remember Starnet is not for major urban centers, it’s for rural or underserved areas all over the world...

Can it become oversubscribed, sure, but the service has a chance to be a game changing...

[Yardstick]

The first page I googled up said that small satellites in low orbits burn up and aren’t a problem.

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/spacecraft-graveyard/en/

Is NASA wrong about this?

[steve86]

Perfect landing and orbit insertion.

[fireman15]

Congratulations on your Googling ability. Did you look at the link that I sent? I didn’t think so.

[Yardstick]

Does your link dispute the fact that small satellites in low earth orbit burn up before impact?

[ready2brd]

It’s 600 pounds, genius. Not 600 tons. And the geometry of the satellites is engineered to create friction and disintegrate upon reentry. It’s pretty simple engineering.

[fireman15]

It's 600 pounds, genius. Not 600 tons.

Thanks for repeating almost word for word what I told you clowns in post 12. They do not have to hit the ground to cause problems. But some pieces do hit the ground don't they? Especially in the nearly 10% of launches that end up in some type of failure.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2021/04/04/spacex-rocket-that-burned-up-over-seattle-also-dropped-space-junk-on-a—farm/?sh=7cd91c8d3643

Do you Poindexters have any idea the amount of energy contained in an object traveling 1000s of miles an hour that weighs even a few grams let alone 600 lbs. I do because I reload my own ammunition. Two grains of smokeless powder which is 0.00457143 of an ounce or 1/328th as much as a typical candy bar is enough to propel a 90 grain projectile fast enough to kill a horse or cow.

What we are talking about are plans to launch over 42,000 600 pound objects and associated rocket components into “very low earth orbit” with a failure rate of approximately 10%. With the frequent failures that works out to an unprecedented amount of space shrapnel circling the globe in more or less random patterns. That's a lot of unpredictable sh*t which will imperil future objects launched into space, airliners, other satellites and yes on rare occasions even structures and people on the ground. Would you apply the same laissez faire attitude if the Chinese were doing the same thing? Some how I doubt it, yet international precedent is being set.

The pieces don't just drop straight down from the sky there is a high speed horizontal component to their flight path which increases the chances that they will cause damage. But yes, obviously, the biggest hazard is to other objects in space. Since you guys are so good at “Googling”... try “Why is space debris so dangerous”. You might even learn something.

It is cute that you two have blind faith in SpaceX and the possible benefits of a massive amount of “very low earth orbit” and virtually no apparent concern over a situation that is becoming more and more of a problem. My faith in the safety of the products being produced by corporations associated with Elon Musk is not nearly as strong.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Sounds like a potential for REAL “Langoliers” to slice and dice. Yikes.

[fireman15]

Sorry typo... should have said, “very low earth orbit satellites”.

[fireman15]

The biggest hazard is to the future development of space around the earth. There is so much debris already circling the earth at tens of thousands of miles per hour that there already is almost no way to correct the situation. SpaceX has the capability and actually plans to increase the hazards from this exponentially. I am not saying that there will not likely be benefits, but with the clown show now in charge of oversight will this be properly addressed? And this is doubtful. When the Chinese decide to put up their own very low earth orbit communications constellation a decade or two down the road how are people going to feel about that?

[fireman15]

I created some confusion when I inadvertantly said in post 2 "And no they are not going to burn up in the atmosphere like most meteors." It should have said "they are not all going to burn up in the atmosphere. The SpaceX launches that go completely as planned do not present much of a hazard. It is the approimately 10% failure rate of the current launches that are the real concern. They have already resulted in large objects hitting the ground at high speed.

[PLMerite]

Happy Day-After-Star-Wars-Day.

May the Fifth be with you!

[RckyRaCoCo]

https://futurism.com/spacex-unidentified-object

[fireman15]

Good link ans article... thanks.

The other concern that I have are the ulterior motives that we are not being told about. This type of project will have the obvious benefit of increased connectivity in remote locations, but what are the chances that in that 600 lb bundle of love there will not be items included which are intended to increase our government's ability to surveil every square inch of our planet in real time in high definition. And even if the SpaceX satelites do not... who does not believe the Chinese will likely be putting up their own constellation of at least as many and probably many more satellites which will have this capability in the not so distant future? Where does this all end and is it going to be beneficial or not.

[RckyRaCoCo]

Nah, they'll likely just sell-out to the Xi's just like our cretins do.

America $$$ First!

[fireman15]

Related... when we are launching 42,000 satellites for one man's business venture, does it make things a little awkward when we complain about Chinese activities.

https://gizmodo.com/u-s-military-doesnt-know-where-chinese-space-debris-mi-1846826506