SpaceX Files Applications for 30,000 More Starlink Satellites
SpaceNews reports that SpaceX has filed spectrum allocation paperwork with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for up to 30,000 additional Starlink broadband satellites.
The FCC, on SpaceX’s behalf, submitted 20 filings to the ITU for 1,500 satellites apiece in various low Earth orbits, an ITU official confirmed Oct. 15 to SpaceNews.
SpaceX deployed its first 60 Starlink satellites in May and plans to launch hundreds — potentially over a thousand — more in the year ahead.
The ITU, a United Nations entity, coordinates spectrum at the international level for satellite operators to prevent signal interference and spectrum hogging. National regulators submit filing on behalf of their country’s satellite operators.
The 30,000 satellites are in addition to 12,000 medium-orbit Starlink satellites already approved by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Elon Musk’s company is planning up to four additional Falcon 9 launches of Starlink satellites by the end of the year. Dates for those flights have not been publicly announced. Additional launches would follow in 2020.
9 responses to “SpaceX Files Applications for 30,000 More Starlink Satellites”
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Well there goes the view for the astronomers. But now we know how Starship will pay for itself.
This is what i’ve been saying for over a year. There is a circular dependency on Starlink and Starship. It is a funding free lunch to get Starship development covered under Starlink investments. The trick was always to get a financially viable reason to develop super-heavy lift, NASA obviously is incapable as it isn’t in their mission or DNA.
Which has been why RLV programs have always failed at NASA. The same with space economic development. The best thing that could come out of the Starship would be to knock NASA down to the same status as the NSF or USGS when it comes to policy in space.
Yes, this is very important. Even if the crew variant isn’t particularly economically viable, if the underlying infra GSE, engines, primary structures are, that can lead to massive savings for HSF.
The passenger variant of Starship will be considerably cheaper than F9+Dragon.
Full reusability brings the cost per launch down low enough that very little payload/seats is required to be cheaper than all other expended or partially reusable launch systems. The paradigm of big launchers need big payloads to justify themselves is ended by cheap(ish) to launch fully reusable systems.
Because of Starlink (and Maezawa), SpaceX will not need to recover the development costs of Starship from Starship launch pricing, as they will simply use some of the profits of Starlink to balance the books. Being a private company they are free to label their costs and revenue streams any way they want. They might even decide to amortise SH/SS production costs into Starlink costs. Effectively, from a financials viewpoint SpaceX could consider Starship as the Starlink launch system, and therefore part of the Starlink development and operating costs. By using Starlink to offset costs, Starship is given many free years to establish a viable space economy, including getting to Mars.
The upfront cost of developing crewed vehicle is large. Even if the spacecraft is full and rapidly reused. working off the upfront is difficult. Hopefully, we can increase the crewed flight rate over time to chip away at that but I wouldn’t bet on that early on.
“The trick was always to get a financially viable reason to develop super-heavy lift”
The trick was to get a financially viable reason to develop full reusability. The mass and volume lift capabilities just come along for the ride.
Ah, we’ll throw a Hubble Junior up there in a few years. They’ll be fine. What’s that you say? A million astronomers can’t fit on one telescope? Tragedy of the commons? Oh Geez, another gubmint jobs program, only this one’s for the blue states. Rapacious capitalism sure ain’t easy. In the old days, we used to have Pinkertons.
Christ you know it ain’t easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They’re going to crucify me
Well, not me, Saint Elon. His Muskiness.
How’s my fanboying? Call 888-1212.
The IAU only reports a little over 11,000 members. Those that actually do the observing on telescopes will be absorbed into the future population of the Space Settlements quite easily. Indeed, being able to work on the Moon might be an incentive to enter the field.