41–50 of 162 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind, the entire Starlink array will only be able to handle like ~1% of global consumer internet traffic. They're only a handful of gbps downlink each. ~10gbps downlink.
But if you remove all streaming/porn/torrent traffic it would be able to handle a lot more of the global traffic.
One off the satellites where apparently already dead and would not respond to commands when they got it mounted on the rocket. But they launched it anyway.
59/60 seems reasonable to go anyway. Launch windows are small and delays are hella expensive
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do wonder if that fairing endeavor will come out net positive over the lifetime of Falcon. They paid for a specialized boat to catch the things, and iterated on the boat design several times. Starship is the real reusability project; Falcon is now just holding on to revenue while they get Starship ready to take over the entire launch market (including their own). The fairing is passive, I really wonder if it would…
I've been thinking about this, and it seems doubtful. The fairings are under a million dollars apparently, so they'd have to recover many dozens if not hundreds to pay back the investment into all the catching technologies. It's not clear that they'll ever use that many fairings before switching over entirely to BFR.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keep in mind, the entire Starlink array will only be able to handle like ~1% of global consumer internet traffic. They're only a handful of gbps downlink each. ~10gbps downlink.
20 Gbps per satellite, according to the FCC filings. Which isn't that great.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do wonder if that fairing endeavor will come out net positive over the lifetime of Falcon. They paid for a specialized boat to catch the things, and iterated on the boat design several times. Starship is the real reusability project; Falcon is now just holding on to revenue while they get Starship ready to take over the entire launch market (including their own). The fairing is passive, I really wonder if it would…
I've been thinking about this, and it seems doubtful. The fairings are under a million dollars apparently, so they'd have to recover many dozens if not hundreds to pay back the investment into all the catching technologies. It's not clear that they'll ever use that many fairings before switching over entirely to BFR.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably didn’t anticipate the delta in load in the flight plan?
The satellites stack, so the speculation is that they would have had to spend days to unstack and restack everything.
One off the satellites where apparently already dead and would not respond to commands when they got it mounted on the rocket. But they launched it anyway.
Can't wait to see every Tesla become a wifi hotspot hooked up to Starlink. Traditional ISPs are in trouble if the Starlink latency is really in the sub 100ms due to the LEO distance advantage. Global coverage with decent latency! I wonder if that's why google dipped out on rolling out fiber infrastructure. Physical infrastructure is about to become obsolete as more advancements in wireless tech and satellite internet…
Can't wait to see every Tesla become a wifi hotspot hooked up to Starlink. Traditional ISPs are in trouble if the Starlink latency is really in the sub 100ms due to the LEO distance advantage. Global coverage with decent latency! I wonder if that's why google dipped out on rolling out fiber infrastructure. Physical infrastructure is about to become obsolete as more advancements in wireless tech and satellite internet…
At this point I'd just like to have a built-in wifi hotspot for my own usage in my car. My Chevy can do this. My fancy high-tech Tesla cannot.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The satellites stack, so the speculation is that they would have had to spend days to unstack and restack everything.
If they had planned ahead, they could have had a system to lift a bunch of satellites off together, then take off/replace the bad one, and then put all the rest back again.
SpaceX is going for vast scale with this project. Failures up to and including the loss of a launch vehicle can't derail the rest of it.