SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by satellite system has “more than 500,000” users made up of early beta-testers, actual subscribers and would-be subscribers who have paid the near-$100 deposit. The confirmation of the numbers came just ahead of the May 4th launch of Starlink’s ‘Star Wars’ day commemoration. Even the launch countdown came with the comment ‘May […]
Eutelsat’s CEO Rodolphe Belmer has explained in some detail why it made its move on OneWeb. Last week it announced it would place $550 million into OneWeb in return for a 24 per cent shareholding. The 24 per cent stake puts Eutelsat at an equal level as the two existing investors. Eutelsat will have 3 […]
SpaceX is expected to launch its next batch of Starlink satellites today (May 4th). This will be the 26th Starlink launch and is subject to the usual weather and technical considerations. The launch is scheduled for 14.30 Florida time. This extra batch will take the overall total of working Starlink satellites to 1494, and ever-closer […]
On April 29th, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral carrying another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. This was Flight 24 for the Starlink mission and the 12th flight this year. SpaceX used a booster rocket which had already flown six times and Elon Musk, speaking a few […]
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Elon Musk permission to lower the orbital heights of its Starlink broadband satellite system. “Specifically, we modify the license by reducing the number of satellites from 4,409 to 4,408; modifying the primary operational altitude specified for 2,814 satellites, to change it from the 1,100-1,300 km range to the […]
SpaceX is taking over a facility in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, that was once used by rocket-launching enterprise Sea Launch to assemble its cargoes and moor its rocket platform. Sea Launch went bust in 2009. . Officials at the Port of Long Beach say they have approved a scheme for SpaceX to move […]
Elon Musk is getting closer to winning FCC approval to fly some of his Starlink low Earth orbiting (LEO) satellites at even lower heights. Acting FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel has asked her board colleagues to formally vote on the plan having herself endorsed the idea. SpaceX is already licensed to operate 1,584 of its Starlink […]
Local reports in India say that its government will demand that SpaceX applies for the relevant permits and to show compliance with India’s telecom rules before it starts offering its satellite broadband Starlink service. India’s telecoms regulator TRAI and Dept. of Telecommunications (DoT) say they are asking SpaceX to outline its plans in order that […]
A few days ago the press was full of stories of a near collision between two orbiting satellites, one from SpaceX’s Starlink and the other from OneWeb. There was talk of barely 60 metres between the two satellites. “Not so,” stated SpaceX in a submission to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), insisting that there was […]
Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, reports that the past week had seen two of Elon Musk’s Starlink craft have re-entered the atmosphere and burned up. McDowell says two Starlinks – which were already ‘retired’ from the fleet – came down at about 14.30 UTC on April 17 and another at […]