Posted on 10/23/2022 5:37:38 AM PDT by FarCenter
India’s space agency says its rocket has successfully put 36 internet satellites into orbit for UK-based satellite company OneWeb after months of delay due to the war in Ukraine.
The mission – part of a commercial arrangement between New Space India Limited, a government-run firm, and OneWeb – was announced successful by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) early on Sunday.
“This is the first-ever commercial launch of the new rocket LVM3 [Launch Vehicle Mark 3],” ISRO Chairman Sreedhara Panicker Somanath said as liftoff took place at 12:07am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh.
This 14th launch of OneWeb satellites relied on India’s heaviest rocket, normally reserved for government spacecraft. OneWeb launched its first satellite in 2019.
It was the first launch for OneWeb since breaking with the Russian Space Agency in March because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Despite this year’s disruption, the British company said it remains on track to activate global coverage next year with a planned constellation of 648 satellites. It is already providing service in the northernmost latitudes.
The satellites will be arranged in 12 rings with 49 satellites in each plane at 1,200km (745 miles) circular orbit, ISRO said on its website. Each satellite will complete a full trip around the heart every 109 minutes, it added.
Each OneWeb satellite weighs about 150 kilogrammes (330 pounds).
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
“The satellites will be arranged in 12 rings with 49 satellites in each plane at 1,200km (745 miles) circular orbit”
Could someone explain this to me? They will not be in fixed orbit over India? Or am I misunderstanding this?
A fixed orbit over India would indicate the satellite is in a GEO orbit (>36000KM altitude) whereas these satellites are in a low earth orbit (LEO) (~1200KM) ala Starlink which orbits lower around 500KM to 560KM.
Yeah, well I hope their math is correct... Or they are going to need to put up traffic lights too. There is not much room left up there.
https://www.japcc.org/articles/a-model-of-the-space-debris-environment/
I understand the need for global communications, but how many satellites does the world need? We have thousands up there now, and people like me, who like to look at the beauty of the night sky, are getting ever more frustrated by all of the hardware being put up there.
Thank you, please see #5. Starlink is already reducing our personal satellite reception from the fixed Sats. Last thing we need are a bunch more flying around up there blocking more footprint. They are going to blind everything else.
Starlink is already now reducing signal wattage from the static Satellites. Pretty soon all the fixed civil and defense satellites will be obsolete.
Thanks for posting that link. Just what I’m talking about. Further down the page the author mentions the movie “Gravity” and how there needs to be more situational awareness. We are truly lucky a situation like that hasn’t happened yet. We should start thinking about tracking down and collecting the space junk that’s up there before a tragedy occurs.
Low earth orbit like Starlink. Not geostationary.
Thats why it will be 12x49 units.
You will need your own satellite telescope to observe the night sky!
Maybe a timeserve system, practically.
Absolutely... It will be a chain reaction like breaking a billiards rack... And I agree, it is time to clean that up or stop.
“However, there is a much larger number of smaller objects not tracked or not trackable. The increasing amount of space debris represents a risk for satellite missions. Depending on the size and the relative impact velocity of objects, collisions could cause considerable damage to satellites. In some regions, the spatial debris density is already so high that a collision would result in a cascading effect, known or referred to as the ‘Kessler Syndrome’.”
Check this out!
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2019/02/Distribution_of_space_debris_in_orbit_around_Earth
That doesn’t show the reality!
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2019/02/Distribution_of_space_debris_in_orbit_around_Earth
Haha, I saw that. Pretty crazy. But I was referring to just known active satellites.
I get it. :)
This is what is exacerbating global warming (now, called climate change), by trapping heat from the planet in the upper atmosphere, which then further prevents the escape of heat, which then further further traps more heats, etc. Just too damn many satellites! We need an anti-satellite law!!
Do you use the Skyview app?
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