Tag: Starlink

technology articles

SpaceX is outsourcing Starlink satellite-dish production, insider says

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  • SpaceX recently launched a public beta test for Starlink, its growing network of internet-beaming satellites.
  • Test subscribers pay $100 per month for broadbandlike service, plus a $500 fee for a starter kit that includes a “UFO on a stick” user terminal, or satellite dish.
  • But each user terminal contains a phased-array antenna, which industry experts say can’t be made for less than $1,000.
  • SpaceX hired STMicroelectronics to manufacture Starlink user terminals, a person with knowledge of the agreement told Business Insider.
  • The contract with the Swiss-headquartered manufacturing giant calls for the production of 1 million terminals and may be worth billions of dollars, the person said.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

SpaceX is outsourcing a key element of its Starlink satellite-internet network with a manufacturing deal worth billions of dollars, an industry insider told Business Insider.

Job postings and statements by SpaceX officials — including founder Elon Musk

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science

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches for record 7th time, Starlink mission

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  • A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivered 60 Starlink satellites into orbit on Tuesday night, marking the rocket’s seventh successful launch.
  • The launch was also SpaceX’s 16th Starlink mission, its 100th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket, and its 23rd flight in 2020 — the most flights it has ever achieved in one year.
  • SpaceX’s two-stage Falcon 9 rocket took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:13 p.m. on Tuesday. The booster then returned to Earth and landed on the “Of Course I Still Love You” drone ship.
  • Elon Musk’s space company now has at least 830 Starlink satellites in orbit. It plans to surround the Earth with up to 42,000 satellites beaming down high-speed internet.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

SpaceX successfully launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets on Tuesday night for a record-breaking seventh time, delivering 60 satellites to orbit for its

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science

SpaceX launches 60 more Starlink internet satellites in 100th Falcon 9 launch

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112420-launch.jpg
A time exposure captures the fiery trajectory of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbing away from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station carrying 60 Starlink internet relay satellites. It was the company’s 23rd launch so far this year, the 100th for the workhorse Falcon 9 since the rocket’s debut in 2010 and a record seventh flight for the booster’s first stage.

William Harwood/CBS News


SpaceX fired off a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida on Tuesday night, marking the company’s 100th overall and 23rd so far this year. The rocket boosted off another set of 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit using a first stage making a record seventh flight.

The latest batch of Starlinks pushed the total number launched to date to 955 as SpaceX continues building out a globe-spanning constellation of internet relay satellites designed to provide broadband services to subscribers anywhere on the planet. Thousands more satellites are

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technology articles

SpaceX uses booster seventh time on Starlink launch

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ORLANDO, Fla., Nov. 24 (UPI) — SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 first-stage boosters for a record seventh time Tuesday night as the company launched more of its Starlink satellites from Florida.

The 16th batch of 60 satellites headed toward orbit at 9:13 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The launch marks the 100th such mission for a Falcon 9 rocket, and boosts the number of Starlink satellites in orbit to more than 900.

A risk of rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean, where Elon Musk’s company wants to land the booster on a droneship, prevented the launch on Monday night. Rough seas remained a risk on Tuesday night, according to a U.S. Space Force forecast, but the launch took place as planned.

The rocket booster for the mission flew on four other Starlink launches, most recently in August, and two missions for

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science

Watch live @ 9 pm ET: SpaceX launching 60 Starlink internet satellites

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SpaceX will launch 60 new Starlink internet satellites into orbit on a used Falcon 9 rocket Tuesday night (Nov. 24) and you can watch it live online here, courtesy of SpaceX. Liftoff is set for 9:13 p.m. EST (0213 Nov. 25 GMT) from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 

Originally scheduled for Sunday (Nov. 22), the launch was scrubbed 30 minutes before liftoff to allow time for additional system checks. A backup launch window on Monday was again delayed to Tuesday due to bad weather. 

The Falcon 9 rocket on this flight is making its seventh flight to space in a milestone for SpaceX’s reusability effort. It launched the Telstar 18 VANTAGE satellite in September 2018,

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technology articles

SpaceX scrubs Starlink satellite launch on record 7th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket

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SpaceX called off the launch of its next Starlink satellite fleet late Sunday (Nov. 22), delaying a potentially record-setting flight for the mission’s Falcon 9 rocket. 

A Falcon 9 rocket was poised to make its seventh launch (a record for the reusable booster) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida when SpaceX scrubbed the mission. The liftoff was scheduled for 9:56 p.m. EST (0256 GMT) to deliver 60 Starlink internet satellites to orbit.

“Standing down from today’s launch of Starlink,” SpaceX said in an update on Twitter. “Rocket and payload are healthy; teams will use additional time to complete data reviews and are now working toward backup opportunity on Monday, November 23 at 9:34 p.m. but keeping an eye on recovery weather.”

Related: See the evolution of SpaceX’s rockets in pictures

SpaceX was just over 30 minutes from launch when the mission was scrubbed. 

“Hold, hold, hold,” SpaceX’s

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new technology

How SpaceX Starlink broadband will envelop Earth and transform the sky

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When the call connects and I ask Angel Chavarin if I’m speaking to AWN-hell or AIN-gel, there’s a familiar pause. I can hear the faint echo of my own words finally reach the cellphone’s speaker on the other end of the line a few seconds later, and then a voice responds: 



A scene from the fallout of the Holiday Farm Fire in Oregon.

© Angel Chavarin

A scene from the fallout of the Holiday Farm Fire in Oregon.


“Yep, it sure is. AIN-gel works. No one around here calls me AWN-hell except my dad.”

It’s a delay I recognize from using satellite phone connections while on assignment on the Alaskan tundra and other remote areas. The signal carrying my words must travel over 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers) to a satellite in geostationary orbit and then another 22,000 miles back to Earth to reach the person on the other end of the call. 



a close up of a side view mirror: Robert Rodriguez/CNET

© Provided by CNET
Robert Rodriguez/CNET

But Chavarin isn’t speaking

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science

SpaceX to set another big milestone with Starlink launch on a busy day

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starlink1

A Falcon 9 launch can typically carry about 60 Starlink satellites.


SpaceX

SpaceX aims to launch its 16th batch of its Starlink broadband satellites on Saturday, which is looking to be a busy day for Elon Musk’s company.

Boosting a new group of its orbiting routers has become a matter of routine for SpaceX as it works to build up a mega-constellation
with thousands of the individual satellites in a low-Earth orbit. But this mission stands to put a few feathers in Musk’s cap.

The first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket is set to make its seventh flight, which would be a record for rocket recycling for the company. The booster previously flew on four Starlink missions and a pair of larger telecom satellite launches.

SpaceX will likely attempt to land the booster on

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technology articles

How and why a Texas school district became SpaceX’s Starlink lab

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  • SpaceX has rocketed nearly 900 internet-beaming Starlink satellites into orbit in hopes of beginning the internet service sometime in 2021.
  • To test Starlink, SpaceX kicked off a public beta in October and is recruiting users.
  • As part of the beta, SpaceX agreed to serve up to 135 families in western Texas through an agreement with the Ector County Independent School District.
  • Scott Muri, the district’s superintendent, said he pursued the deal because dozens of students’ families have “zero internet” and no conventional way to get it.
  • Business Insider obtained an agreement between SpaceX and the district for Starlink service, which includes pricing and terms of service.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

When it rolled out a big test of its Starlink satellite-internet project this summer, SpaceX decided to make Ector County Independent School District, a rural education system in western Texas, a vital experiment.

Superintendent Scott Muri had

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science

A small asteroid came closer to Earth than even SpaceX Starlink satellites

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Asteroid approaching Earth, artwork

Close enough for a high-five…


NASA

An asteroid set a new mark on Friday for the closest pass by our planet without actually impacting.

The space rock was discovered with the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, or ATLAS, run by NASA and the University of Hawaii. It has been designated 2020 VT4, and it came within just 240 miles (386 kilometers) of Earth’s surface on Friday. That’s closer even than objects in low-earth orbit including the International Space Station and SpaceX’s Starlink broadband constellation.

While this is much closer than the record set back in August when asteroid 2020 QG flew by at a distance of 1,830 miles (2,950 kilometers), it’s not unusual for asteroids to get so up in our planetary grill. 

Plenty of bits of space dust and larger rocks make it all the way to the ground in the form of meteorites. One of the larger

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