Has anyone been following SpaceX's Starlink?

[CShawn]

I skimmed an article last week and I believe they said they planned on using their Falcon Heavy rocket for packing more in per launch. I believe it also said that there has to be continuing replenishment launches to keep it going, five years I think on a satellite lifespan. A couple of other companies are working on constellations as well.

[MartinR]

I doubt they can pack many more in the FH, the fairing is almost full as it is. Same fairing on FH. But I think in a few years they will use Starship, if they can get it to work, and then the cost of launching will be marginal.

[a64pilot]

I was under the impression that the full capabilities of a launch vehicle are almost never used, and the intent was to fill any excess with these satellites, let x pay for the launch and you pack in however many of your satellites that you can, but that the intent wasn’t to launch dedicated vehicles for these sats?

[hellosailor]

a64,
I think you get the prize for best autocorrection created error of the week. Your first post come out as "launch vermicelli" and I was wondering, do you fill that with ricotta or...? (G)

[B23iL23]

Falcon 9 and Heavy are volume limited, not mass. The diameter of the second stage and the fairing limits the available volume. That said, the recent Starlink launch was the heaviest so for for Space X.

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I was under the impression that the full capabilities of a launch vehicle are almost never used, and the intent was to fill any excess with these satellites, let x pay for the launch and you pack in however many of your satellites that you can, but that the intent wasn’t to launch dedicated vehicles for these sats?

[hellosailor]

Considering the number of companies that want to launch cubesats and minisats and all sorts of smaller payloads? I'd have to think that not many launches will be going up significantly below capacity. In any case, launching 2000+ satellites and being price-competitive with the other launch companies is going to be a task.

[Delezynski]

When are they going to rename the system to Skynet? Arnold is waiting..... AND, where is John Conner??? ;-)

[FranklinGray]

I used to stream netflix off standard 3g which is about 300 -500 kb/s. 100 is pretty low but good enough for weather pages and email. If I remeber rightly, I used to be able to use logmein off of 150 kb/s to work in Bahamas.

[wkstar]

Starlink - would change Everything worldwide.
It will be fast enough to watch Youtube Videos
It would get rid of many Cell phone company's, Just switch to WhatsApp or skype or whatever VOIP app comes out.
No country would be able to Block any internet service.
Any human space trip would use starlink to send info back and forth
All TV and Cable networks will have to be on starlink
The low latency they speak about would mean online games could be played on starlink
If you have stock in Cable&Wireless, I would sell yesterday. No need to lay underwater cable anymore
The most remote places with slow or NO Internet would get high bandwith internet overnight
Sat phones become unneeded
The Antenna is the size of a Pizza box, So space is not a issue
Who needs 5G or whatever, Make your calls on Starlink
The list goes on and on and on