Elon Musk’s SpaceX is altering its plan to send another 30,000 satellites in its Starlink mega-constellation into space using its existing Falcon 9 rocket fleet. A SpaceX lawyer, William Wiltshire, in a letter to the FCC explains that progress on the constellation is moving forward better than expected and that SpaceX plans to start launching […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband by satellite system already has some 145,000 users and has been adding customers at a rate of about 11,000 per month, according to CNBC. That customer base is spread over 25 countries, said the broadcaster. However, new additions have slowed in recent months and by only 5000 from early November. CNBC […]
January 6th saw Elon Musk’s SpaceX launch an extra 49 satellites into his broadband fleet and the first launch of 2022 for the business. The launch, from the Kennedy Space Center at 16.49pm ET, went flawlessly – as did the landing of the rocket’s booster some nine minutes after launch. Falcon 9’s first stage booster […]
Elon Musk’s Starlink broadband by satellite service is to return deposits paid by would-be subscribers in India. The satellite operator has been directed by India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) to refund these pre-order deposits until such time as the company is permitted to operate in India. At the moment, while it has applied for an […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning to launch a batch of Starlink satellites this week. The launch, subject to the usual weather considerations, is scheduled for 16:49 EST (21.49 GMT), with a backup time available at 18:47 EST (23.47 GMT) on January 6th. The SpaceX mission, officially dubbed Starlink 4-5 is looking to place the batch […]
Elon Musk is preparing his giant Starship at its Boca Chica, south Texas launch site, but an expected approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is not now expected before the end of February. There have been more than 18,000 comments filed into the FAA in regard to its draft comments on the launch of […]
Data from internet speedtest provider Ookla show a decline of around 100 Mb/s over the past quarter for SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by satellite system. Ookla says that during Q2 this year the median download speed for Starlink users was 97.23 Mb/s. During Q3 the median speed had dropped to 87.25 Mb/s. Ookla’s head of content, […]
December 18th saw two SpaceX launches; the first, from California saw the successful launch of an additional 52 Starlink satellites from the Vandenberg Airforce Base, meaning that Elon Musk’s broadband constellation now has some 1880 satellites in orbit, and mostly working. The second, from SpaceX’s traditional launch site in Florida, saw the successful placing of […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is scheduled to launch 52 of its Starlink craft into circular orbits today (December 17th). This is an unusual move from Musk’s team but is designed to fill gaps in the constellation’s existing coverage. The launch will take place from SpaceX’s facility at the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California (at 09.26 […]
Paris-based analysts Euroconsult say that over the remaining years of this decade to 2030 there will be an average of 1,700 satellites launched each year. The numbers reflect a four-fold increase in numbers (although only a doubling in terms of mass). Euroconsult says the race is heating up to rapidly deploy commercial mega constellations for […]