Live data from Hacker News

SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

techcrunch.com

11–20 of 343 posts

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#11
post #6
post #4

I'm keen to see Starlink deals with government censorship requests. Can a country even effectively enforce their requests? How will China enforce the Great Firewall for instance?

China will just confiscate any satellite dishes. SpaceX will comply if they want the market, or someone else will.

I think the "if Amazon/Google/FB don't comply, someone else will take their place" argument is weaker when replacement requires a constellation of thousands of satellites.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#12
post #3

My high school daughter has really gotten into astronomy and space in the last few years, and is torn between celebrating the 9th use of the same first-stage rocket and hating the pieces of space junk it’s delivering to low earth orbit.

Your high school daughter could be the person that helps SpaceX figure out their "space junk" problem!

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#13
Amazing times, when a private company can launch 3 flights in two weeks, not even counting the Starship tests :). It is faszinating to see, how quickly Starlink is progressing, we are on the brink of global satellite broadband internet. This could be a substantial change especially in all the countries without a wide broadband availability. It will be interesting to see whether SpaceX can generate enough revenue to be able to finance large space projects on their own. Of course there is Mars, but also the Moon, perhaps a space station or asteroid mining.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#14
am i the only person thinking that there should be laws to prevent rich individuals to increase the mass in LEO by a factor 10 in less than 10 years? i understand the enthusiasm but shouldn't these decisions let to the people, countries, for instance an intergouvernemental agency.

also: is the dark coating working? without it those are quite visible, and make radio and optical astronomy much harder (especially large sky surveys).

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#15
So where is Amazon in relation to all of this?

I got pinged by a recruiter from Kuiper the other week and all I can see is that there's no way they're on track to be working in 5 years. They don't even have a stable launch platform. Would Musk sell Bezos the ride?

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#16
post #6
post #4

I'm keen to see Starlink deals with government censorship requests. Can a country even effectively enforce their requests? How will China enforce the Great Firewall for instance?

China will just confiscate any satellite dishes. SpaceX will comply if they want the market, or someone else will.

Seems like there's an opportunity to produce an open-source SpaceX compatible antenna that someone could build themselves. I wonder if at some point SpaceX could allow this on their network?

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#17
post #3

My high school daughter has really gotten into astronomy and space in the last few years, and is torn between celebrating the 9th use of the same first-stage rocket and hating the pieces of space junk it’s delivering to low earth orbit.

Starlink satellites will only stay up about five years without propulsion, and unless a satellite breaks hard it will be deorbited with propulsion much faster.

Concerns about space junk aren’t about these low orbits, they are about orbits where things stay up hundreds of years or much longer.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#18
post #4

I'm keen to see Starlink deals with government censorship requests. Can a country even effectively enforce their requests? How will China enforce the Great Firewall for instance?

Plenty of countries today already restrict the import of certain products (sat phones, CB radios, weapons, etc.)

The SpaceX receiving dish (dishy) will just be on that list for certain countries.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#19
post #14

am i the only person thinking that there should be laws to prevent rich individuals to increase the mass in LEO by a factor 10 in less than 10 years? i understand the enthusiasm but shouldn't these decisions let to the people, countries, for instance an intergouvernemental agency. also: is the dark coating working? without it those are quite visible, and make radio and optical astronomy much harder (especially large…

Would it apply only to the rich or to everyone? If everyone, then why bring out the richness?

Do you want to prevent satellites existing completely or just keep it at some threshold that has been crossed?

Most importantly, what's the actual problem here? You haven't pointed out any downsides of having increased mass in LEO.

Re: SpaceX delivers 3rd batch of Starlink satellites in two weeks

#20
post #14

am i the only person thinking that there should be laws to prevent rich individuals to increase the mass in LEO by a factor 10 in less than 10 years? i understand the enthusiasm but shouldn't these decisions let to the people, countries, for instance an intergouvernemental agency. also: is the dark coating working? without it those are quite visible, and make radio and optical astronomy much harder (especially large…

I mean, they had to apply for a license to do it, and it was granted.
Post reply on HN