FCC gives SpaceX the go-ahead to drop Starlink satellite orbits by 500 kilometres or so
- Reference: 1619635744
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/04/28/fcc_spacex/
- Source link:
The [1]authorisation reduces the maximum number of birds allowed in the constellation by one from 4,409 to 4,408, and reduces the operational altitude for 2,814 of the satellites from between 1,100-1,300km to the 540-570km range used by other Starlink sats. The fleet has just over 1,000 satellites in orbit right now, and it's hoped 12,000 or more will be launched eventually.
[2]
SpaceX's Starlink: Overhyped and underpowered to meet broadband needs of Rural America, say analysts [3]READ MORE
Protests from the likes of Viasat, Kepler, and Kuiper concerning issues such as interference were dismissed by the FCC. The agency also accepted SpaceX's updated orbital debris mitigation plan, noting three main elements: Starlink satellites have their own propulsion and so can manoeuvre; satellites approaching their end of mission would have their altitude lowered, thus hastening atmospheric re-entry; and finally, by dropping down to the 550km range, a satellite that could not manoeuvre itself would drop out of orbit within 25 years regardless.
[4]
"With respect to the concerns expressed by some parties about the effectiveness of SpaceX's collision avoidance process and the information SpaceX has provided about it, none of the parties raise specific or particularized concerns that warrant additional inquiry at this time," the agency said.
Those words will be of great comfort to the European Space Agency, which had to perform a hurried manoeuvre [5]to dodge what it delicately referred to as a "mega constellation" (spoiler: it was Starlink).
Not counting the 60 prototype Starlink satellites, the failure rate of the craft has worried some. Data provided by SpaceX to the FCC showed an "early mission termination rate" of around 3.1 per cent (43 of 1,383 satellites). It did, however, claim to have dealt with the root cause for the failures and, coupled with on-orbit software updates, cut down on the borks. Of SpaceX, the FCC said that "as of mid-February 2021, 720 of the last 723 satellites it launched were maneuverable above injection altitude."
Unsurprisingly, SpaceX boss Elon Musk described the change as "fair & sensible."
FCC is fair & sensible. NHTSA & FAA too. 99.9% of the time, I agree with regulators!
On rare occasions, we disagree. This is almost always due to new technologies that past regulations didn’t anticipate. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [6]April 27, 2021
A little less sensible was his earlier descent to playground taunts in response to news of Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin filing a protest regarding [7]NASA's lunar lander contract award .
Can’t get it up (to orbit) lol — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) [8]April 26, 2021
While his acolytes might dismiss Musk's antics as Elon just being Elon, Blue Origin is not alone in its protest at the NASA decision. Fellow loser Dynetics [9]weighed in with a protest of its own yesterday.
[10]
In space, fortunately, no one can hear you sue. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-grants-spacexs-satellite-broadband-modification-application
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YIna98OmscvKMqQeJBkXVQAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/09/spacex_starlink_is_overhyped/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YIna98OmscvKMqQeJBkXVQAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/02/esa_starlink/
[6] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1387176157737541641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/16/nasa_spacex_moon/
[8] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1386825367948644352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[9] https://spacepolicyonline.com/news/dynetics-also-protesting-nasas-hls-award/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YIna98OmscvKMqQeJBkXVQAAAAE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Simple solution
Might be better if it's the first one to bring it back...
from 4,409 to 4,408
Is this a typo in the original document?
Re: from 4,409 to 4,408
Yeah, a reduction of 1 from such a large number also struck me as seeing a little odd too.
4,409 to 4,408
It's not a typo: the FCC's reduced the max size of the constellation by one and allowed some of them to operate at a lower altitude. There's about 1,200 in orbit now, and 12,000 or more planned eventually, which will be launched in stages.
C.
Arrogant?
Space and orbits are an international resource.
Why did Starlink get approval just on USA agreement in the first place?
How does the FCC have the authority to allow these 500 km lower when they are not above the USA? Actually only one height makes a satellite appear to be always above the USA.
Also it's INTERNET satellites. Not Broadband. Peak speed doesn't make it broadband. Contention? Security & Evesdropping? Protocols?
What's the operational life?
Re: Arrogant?
>Space and orbits are an international resource.
The galactic council disagrees
>How does the FCC have the authority to allow these 500 km lower
They don't. they just have the ability to pull Starlink's license to sell internet services to US customers. Which means that Starlink has to do what they say if they want to make money.
Azerbaijan's telecom regulator could refuse permission and threaten Starlink's ability to sell services in their country - and Starlink will ignore them.
>Peak speed doesn't make it broadband.
Actually message bandwidth greater than coherence bandwidth makes it broadband.
Starlink does 300mbs, that's faster than I get with my single monopoly supplier of cable 'broadband' at home
>What's the operational life?
Quite small, < 5years. Short life means you can use cheaper platforms, don't need radiation hard space grade components and can replace them as hw gets cheaper and better. The only reason for very long life of conventional comms satellites was the huge launch costs, which SpaceX has a handle on.
Re: Arrogant?
How does the FCC get to rule on this? I believe hat would be the 1967 "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies" which says each country is responsible for what they put up there. You don't obtain individual permission from every single country you fly over. It's not like satellites could change their altitude when overflying France, for instance.
Does 75-150 Mbps downstream and 20-25 Mbps upstream count as broadband? That's consistently what I get from my Starlink connection.
When I get 75 Mbps, I know that II've fallen back to 2.4 GHz on my WiFi. The Starlink router isn't very configurable, so my fix is to toggle WiFi off and back on again. Eventually I'll upgrade to a different router and will split SSIDs for 2.4 and 5 GHz (will also add a 5GHz accesd point to improve coverage).
In the mean time, I just marvel at the fact that my WiFi AP can be my bottleneck. I used to have DSL, so that's a nice change.
Re: Does 75-150 Mbps
But how many people are using it vs the target of how many people they want signed up?
Contention target.
Does any arbitrary VPN software work? Can you get a fixed IP? What is the jitter?
It has to make a profit per satellite in less than five years.
Nothing like Starlink was envisaged when the rules were written.
Simple solution
Cash on delivery, first one to put a lunar lander on the moon gets paid