SpaceX successfully launches 21 new Starlink satellites

UPI ^ | APRIL 19, 2023 / 7:22 AM / UPDATED AT 11:27 AM | By Clyde Hughes

[Red Badger]

RELATED North Korea's Kim Jong Un orders launch of 'completed' spy satellite

[NorthMountain]

Our “pogo sticks” are doing a lot better than Roscosmos’s rockets ... Falcon 9 continues to be awesome.

Is there any betting on tomorrow’s attempt to launch Starship?

[Gnome1949]

Thousands of satellites going into orbit to watch and record our every move and Internet message.

[V_TWIN]

“That included the return of the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket onto the “Shortfall of Gravitas” drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean”

Watching that never gets old.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

It's getting crowded up there...not a lot of room left.

[Red Badger]

All that shade should reduce Global Warming.......................

[TheDon]

Agreed.

[9YearLurker]

Great! More command and control of us from the skies!

(I can’t believe the Freepers who fall for this guy.)

[NorthMountain]

BTW, I had a “stomp rocket” like that back in the Dark Ages when I was <10 YO. We got a lot better performance out of it than those poor souls seem to manage.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Here's the direct link to the SpaceX YouTube video set to start right before the launch sequence. I still get chills watching rocket launches. According to the narrator, this was the 176th recovery of a SpaceX booster. It feels like just yesterday they accomplished recovery #1.

I still marvel at one man creating this company and building it like he has done. What an incredible success story from an incredible man.

My dad built spacecraft for a living at GE and had some amazing missions. I always felt my career in energy and tech was puny in comparison to Dad and the what SpaceX is doing.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

LOL...right you are!

[Red Badger]

My stepdad worked on the Mercury project in California..................

[NorthMountain]

watch and record our every move and Internet message.

Because there's just no way to monitor and record terrestrial internet traffic.

I'm glad Starlink is operational. I'm sure it's pure coincidence that Frontier Communications finally got off their lazy butts and ran fiber out to my area shortly after Starlink became available here.

[null and void]

My dad built a valve in California designed to kill one of the LEM astronauts.

It was never needed...

[beef]

“My dad built a valve in California designed to kill one of the LEM astronauts.”

Interesting. Can you elaborate on that?

[1Old Pro]

SpaceX has more than 4,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth but has plans to greatly increase that total. The space company has the approval to put as many as 12,000 more Starlink craft into orbit. The Starlink satellites were created to deliver broadband Internet service to remote or underserved locations around the world.

So basically everyone will soon have Starlink access. I imagine we may soon see $19.99/month ultra fast internet service for all.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Cool! My dad was working on the Polaris ICBM about the same time as Mercury was underway.

[null and void]

Sure. Only one oxygen supply on the LEM, due to weight restrictions. Both astronauts are plugged in to a common, the only, oxygen supply.

Let’s say that’s you and me.

I manage to get a hole or tear in my space suit. The valve shuts off my oxygen supply and I die.

If the valve doesn’t shut off the oxygen flowing to my suit, there soon won’t be any oxygen for either of us. We both die.

My retired Marine (WWII, China, Korea, and Vietnam veteran) understood the calculus here, and built the valves, hoping they’d never be needed.

They weren’t.

[Redleg Duke]

” Great! More command and control of us from the skies! (I can’t believe the Freepers who fall for this guy.)”

My God! That is one scary world you live in…all by yourself!

[A Navy Vet]

Watched the YouTube launch and recovery of the first stage. I'm still amazed the all the rocket scientists and engineers at NASA never thought of a reusable first stage. Yes, NASA has done amazing things, but how did they miss this? My questions about Space X:
1. How much did Musk use his own money to finance Space X. Who are the other investors?
2. How much does Space X get for each satellite launched?
3. Has Space X turned a profit yet or covered its costs of the initial design and the hiring of so many experts? 4. What is his connection with NASA and the Kennedy Space Center for launch? I have many more.

I believe that even if Tesla vehicles are not profitable, Space X will add more Billions to Musk's wealth. His vision is the future while NASA is looking at the past. As the saying goes, "The more the government is involved, the less progress and more bureaucracy keeps innovation in a box."