SpaceX Tuesday...
Discussion
It's just been approved by Ofcom so I guess they started getting in touch with people today
https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
Beati Dogu said:
The cargo Dragon capsule is due to return to Earth on Monday 11th.
The plan is to splashdown in the Atlantic, off the east coast of Florida. However, they’ve sent a recovery ship round to the west coast (Tampa) to cover the Gulf of Mexico, just in case.
The release & return of the CRS-21 Dragon capsule has been delayed by a day due to poor weather off Florida The plan is to splashdown in the Atlantic, off the east coast of Florida. However, they’ve sent a recovery ship round to the west coast (Tampa) to cover the Gulf of Mexico, just in case.
There are 3 recovery areas (Port Canaveral, Daytona, Jacksonville) just off the east coast and 1 more off the west coast (Tampa). The primary is off Daytona Beach, just up the coast from Cape Canaveral.
RizzoTheRat said:
It's just been approved by Ofcom so I guess they started getting in touch with people today
https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
I hadn't realised that some UK subscribers had been supplied with Starlink equipment - fair play to the chap in Devon who had been on 0.5 Mbps going to 85 Mbps with Starlink. Going to be a huge game changer for rural areas.https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
eharding said:
RizzoTheRat said:
It's just been approved by Ofcom so I guess they started getting in touch with people today
https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
I hadn't realised that some UK subscribers had been supplied with Starlink equipment - fair play to the chap in Devon who had been on 0.5 Mbps going to 85 Mbps with Starlink. Going to be a huge game changer for rural areas.https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
They have been realigning constellations a few times and while they are in transit, the service will be either poor or nonexistent.
This isn't up-to-date, but gives an idea of what the launches do, and how the individual payloads deploy. Note that at various points even after they are stable, they go back to unstable in order to accommodate new flights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evpM8Nu9b7E
CraigyMc said:
eharding said:
RizzoTheRat said:
It's just been approved by Ofcom so I guess they started getting in touch with people today
https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
I hadn't realised that some UK subscribers had been supplied with Starlink equipment - fair play to the chap in Devon who had been on 0.5 Mbps going to 85 Mbps with Starlink. Going to be a huge game changer for rural areas.https://www.businessinsider.com/starlink-beta-uk-e...
They have been realigning constellations a few times and while they are in transit, the service will be either poor or nonexistent.
This isn't up-to-date, but gives an idea of what the launches do, and how the individual payloads deploy. Note that at various points even after they are stable, they go back to unstable in order to accommodate new flights.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evpM8Nu9b7E
Well, if they're going to spaff light trails all over my astrophotography I may as well get some benefit out of it.
Can you not get decent broadband where you are, or just want to be part of the trials?
They're launching another batch of 60 on Sunday. Plus another 10 next Thursday as well. These are on a rideshare launch called Transporter 1 which is carrying a bunch of small sats and nano sats. There was going to be a couple of satellites for DARPA on it as well, but apparently they got accidentally released from the dispenser when they were being integrated and were damaged. Ooops.
The 10 Starlinks on this flight will be the first ones on a polar orbit. The rocket is headed south from Florida.
They're launching another batch of 60 on Sunday. Plus another 10 next Thursday as well. These are on a rideshare launch called Transporter 1 which is carrying a bunch of small sats and nano sats. There was going to be a couple of satellites for DARPA on it as well, but apparently they got accidentally released from the dispenser when they were being integrated and were damaged. Ooops.
The 10 Starlinks on this flight will be the first ones on a polar orbit. The rocket is headed south from Florida.
Beati Dogu said:
Can you not get decent broadband where you are, or just want to be part of the trials?
A bit of both - getting between 30-60 Mbps from BT FTTC, no sign they'll ever plumb in FTTP and I miss the 200 Mbps I used to get in Bracknell. Plus new shiny SpaceX stuff. Looking forward to streaming SpaceX Starlink satellite launch videos via the SpaceX Starlink satellites. Yo dog.
We'll see how the Starlink setup works - no tracking info yet on my order page at starlink.com, had some irrepressibly cheerful support messages saying there shouldn't be an issue for DHL to deliver even though the postcode is mangled.
I'd like to move up to somewhere really out in the sticks up on Exmoor at some stage, but doubtful if some of those places will ever see decent broadband provision from traditional carriers (and it may be that LEO broadbrand from Starlink and others may kill off any commercial initiative to do so).
Beati Dogu said:
Well it'll be interesting to hear your experiences with it.
Will do. Feel slightly better about the cost of the user terminal kit when apparently Starlink are selling them at a significant loss - some estimates are that they're losing $2000 on each one at the moment, and Musk has said that one of the biggest technical challenges is reducing the cost of the consumer equipment rather than the satellite infrastructure.Interesting and very detailed tear down of "Dishy" the dish here:
TL;DR - the dish is a massive PCB with a phased-array antenna on one side, and lot of custom silicon and RF stages all over the back side, and if you get as far in taking it apart to see that, you're going to need a new one.
The Dragon 2 cargo capsule is due back tonight. It's now expected to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico off Tampa, Florida at about 1.27 am UK time.
The US Coast Guard is enforcing a 2 mile safety zone this time.
UPDATE: "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX’s 21st Space Station resupply mission and the first return of a cargo resupply spacecraft off the coast of Florida"
The time-critical research items were flown off the recovery ship by helicopter and arrived at Kennedy Space Center 3 hours after splashdown.
The US Coast Guard is enforcing a 2 mile safety zone this time.
UPDATE: "Splashdown of Dragon confirmed, completing SpaceX’s 21st Space Station resupply mission and the first return of a cargo resupply spacecraft off the coast of Florida"
The time-critical research items were flown off the recovery ship by helicopter and arrived at Kennedy Space Center 3 hours after splashdown.
Edited by Beati Dogu on Thursday 14th January 11:47
So it looks like UK-based Starlink beta testers are getting a pretty decent service reading the threads on Reddit.
One user in the New Forest is seeing min/max speeds over 24hrs of 32/187 Mbps.
So the ground stations in France must be operational now and I presume with Ofcom's recent approval they'll be looking to build a few in the UK sometime soon.
Even though the fastest service I can get locally is around 30 Mbps, I doubt I'd be considered for Starlink as I'm not rural enough, but it's good to know if I ever move into nowheresville, there will be another option.
One user in the New Forest is seeing min/max speeds over 24hrs of 32/187 Mbps.
So the ground stations in France must be operational now and I presume with Ofcom's recent approval they'll be looking to build a few in the UK sometime soon.
Even though the fastest service I can get locally is around 30 Mbps, I doubt I'd be considered for Starlink as I'm not rural enough, but it's good to know if I ever move into nowheresville, there will be another option.
N0ddie said:
Can't find any vids of the Dragon return?
It wasn't live streamed. NASA TV covered the release from the ISS, but that was it.Boeing's CST-100 Starliner demo #2 was supposed to go up in early Jan and replace this Dragon. However that's been put back to the 29th March. 15 months after its first abortive attempt. Boeing is covering the costs of this launch. If it's successful, their first manned flight will be at the end of the year.
Beati Dogu said:
N0ddie said:
Can't find any vids of the Dragon return?
It wasn't live streamed. NASA TV covered the release from the ISS, but that was it.Boeing's CST-100 Starliner demo #2 was supposed to go up in early Jan and replace this Dragon. However that's been put back to the 29th March. 15 months after its first abortive attempt. Boeing is covering the costs of this launch. If it's successful, their first manned flight will be at the end of the year.
annodomini2 said:
Starship has also been put back to Monday, 2 engines to be replaced, due to damage during the static fires yesterday
Won't that mean the new engines will need to be static fired too to test them ?I wonder if they need a higher launch/test platform, or maybe cover the entire pad in a thick slab of steel
MartG said:
annodomini2 said:
Starship has also been put back to Monday, 2 engines to be replaced, due to damage during the static fires yesterday
Won't that mean the new engines will need to be static fired too to test them ?I wonder if they need a higher launch/test platform, or maybe cover the entire pad in a thick slab of steel
I think the low platform is deliberate, testing how robust the engines are for planetary launching
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