They originally had approval to have roughly half their satellites at ~550km and the rest at around double that.
That article is referring to the approval to change those that were supposed to be at higher altitudes - none of which had yet been launched - back to ~550km like the rest of them. Scott On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 2:04 PM Roger Clarke <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 1:24 PM Roger Clarke <[email protected] > > <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > > > [ Have there been previous launches into the 550km level, which went > as > > planned? Was the prompt loss of 40 of a batch of 49 really a > once-off > > bit of bad luck, or an indicator that the environment at that level > is > > simply too hostile for spacecraft to hang around? ] > > > On 10/2/22 8:37 am, Scott Howard wrote: > > They have just under 2,000 satellites already at/around the 550km level. > > > That was quick. The FCC 'approval' to start sending things up to that > level was only in April 2021. > > Maybe the report I read wasn't clear enough: > > https://www.satellitetoday.com/broadband/2021/04/27/fcc-approves-spacex-request-to-lower-starlinks-altitude/ > > The license modification allows SpaceX to *change the altitude* for > 2,814 *future* Starlink satellites, from the 1,100-1,300 km range to the > 540-570 km range > > So did they reposition most of those 2,000, rather than sending up a lot > of payloads to 550m, in the space of only a few months? > > I couldn't quickly run to ground (so to speak) the planned life of the > things. Maybe it's at least a couple of years. Which would seem to > mean they've got a lot of propellant on board. > > > -- > Roger Clarke mailto:[email protected] > T: +61 2 6288 6916 http://www.xamax.com.au http://www.rogerclarke.com > > Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd 78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA > > Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Law University of N.S.W. > Visiting Professor in Computer Science Australian National University > _______________________________________________ > Link mailing list > [email protected] > https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link > _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
