Starlink launch today

There was yet another Starlink launch today (another 60 satellites, I
believe). I watched the replay since I was stuck in a meeting earlier
this morning. The booster successfully landed on the autonomous drone
ship.

During the launch, the SpaceX commentator mentioned the future use of
Starlink by both aircraft and ships. This makes a lot of sense
considering that the cost of satellite Internet service for aircraft and
ships is currently insane.

Good article on the launch and current status of Starlink:

https://spacenews.com/falcon-9-launc...satellites-to-
orbit-as-constellation-beta-testing-continues/

Lots of interesting info in the above article. SpaceX is already
testing laser interconnects in orbit with Starlink. It's not clear
exactly how many Starlinks in orbit have the hardware to do this, but
I'm guessing very few since they're in an early testing phase for that
feature.

Internal Starlink testing sounds like it's going well with plans for a
public Beta later this year. So, I think Starlink is moving faster than
many people expected it would. The key bit of information lacking is
price.

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

On 2020-09-03 17:37, Jeff Findley wrote:
There was yet another Starlink launch today (another 60 satellites, I
believe). I watched the replay since I was stuck in a meeting earlier
this morning. The booster successfully landed on the autonomous drone
ship.


I'm signed up for e-mail announcements from SpaceX of impending
launches. I was interested to note that in the announcement for this
launch, they said:

"Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9's first
stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship, which will be
stationed in the Atlantic Ocean."

Not so long ago, the wording was "... first stage will ATTEMPT to land
on ...". They are becoming confident :-|

--
niklas holsti tidorum fi
. @ .

On Thursday or thereabouts, Niklas Holsti asked ...
On 2020-09-03 17:37, Jeff Findley wrote:
There was yet another Starlink launch today (another 60 satellites, I
believe). I watched the replay since I was stuck in a meeting earlier
this morning. The booster successfully landed on the autonomous drone
ship.


I'm signed up for e-mail announcements from SpaceX of impending launches. I
was interested to note that in the announcement for this launch, they said:

"Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9's first
stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship, which will be
stationed in the Atlantic Ocean."

Not so long ago, the wording was "... first stage will ATTEMPT to land on
...". They are becoming confident :-|

I've noticed that the boosters, including the latest Starlink, are more
consistently centered in the circles on the barge. We didn't get the
final downlink from the booster, but the drone ship camera cut in just
in time.

The whole stream from Thursday was much shorter, at least by Thursday
night, beginning about 10 minutes before launch, and concluding
immediately after Starlink deploy, with the words "and so we won't show
the fairing catch attempts; check our social media for followups".

Since the ewe toob channel is the only social media I'm following
outside this group, any reports on fairing status?

/dps


--
But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason
to 'be happy.'"
Viktor Frankl

In article mn.33c77e4907679aec.127094@snitoo,
says...

Since the ewe toob channel is the only social media I'm following
outside this group, any reports on fairing status?

I believe I saw pictures on Twitter of broken fairings returning to
port. You win some, you lose some.

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

On Tuesday, Jeff Findley queried:
In article mn.33c77e4907679aec.127094@snitoo,
says...

Since the ewe toob channel is the only social media I'm following
outside this group, any reports on fairing status?

I believe I saw pictures on Twitter of broken fairings returning to
port. You win some, you lose some.

Jeff

Thanks. One of the reports of the mid-summer success suggested that it
was too early to consider the technique issues settled.

/dps

--
Trust, but verify.

In article mn.45827e49659e620a.127094@snitoo,
says...

On Tuesday, Jeff Findley queried:
In article mn.33c77e4907679aec.127094@snitoo,
says...

Since the ewe toob channel is the only social media I'm following
outside this group, any reports on fairing status?

I believe I saw pictures on Twitter of broken fairings returning to
port. You win some, you lose some.

Thanks. One of the reports of the mid-summer success suggested that it
was too early to consider the technique issues settled.

From what I can tell, they still seem to be fishing them out of the
ocean more than catching them in the net. Fishing them out of the ocean
seems to work fine when the ocean is very calm. But since the fairings
are rather fragile (especially when they're not connected to each other
and to the 2nd stage), any rough seas seem to destroy them in short
order.

The US Navy had issues like this when they tried to develop the Sea
Dart.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convair_F2Y_Sea_Dart

The Sea Dart never finished development as advances in handling
supersonic aircraft off aircraft carriers were overcome.

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

Jeff Findley scribbled something on Tuesday the 9/8/2020:
In article mn.33c77e4907679aec.127094@snitoo,
says...

Since the ewe toob channel is the only social media I'm following
outside this group, any reports on fairing status?

I believe I saw pictures on Twitter of broken fairings returning to
port. You win some, you lose some.

Some of those pictures have propagated to Teslarati:
URL:https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-youngest-falcon-9-booster-port-return/

/dps

--
I have always been glad we weren't killed that night. I do not know
any particular reason, but I have always been glad.
_Roughing It_, Mark Twain