SpaceX is targeting Tuesday, March 9 for launch of 60 Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The instantaneous window is at 9:58 p.m. EST. Weather forecast is favorable.

The Falcon 9 first stage rocket booster supporting this mission previously supported launch of NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the International Space Station, ANASIS-II, CRS-21, Transporter-1, and a Starlink mission. Following stage separation, SpaceX will land Falcon 9’s first stage on the “Just Read the Instructions” droneship, which will be located in the Atlantic Ocean. One half of Falcon 9’s fairing previously flew on the ANASIS-II and SXM-7 missions, and the other half previously supported launch of Sentinel-6A.

You can watch a live webcast of this mission, which will begin about 15 minutes prior to liftoff, by clicking HERE

After this one, they have tentatively set the 22nd batch of 60 Starlink birds for March 13 at 5:06 am Eastern.

Thing will freak the S out of you if you don't know what it is when you see it silently move across the sky overhead.

oooo weeeeee ooooo uhhhhh

Saw it when heading out before dawn for a deer hunt this year.

Would have paid someone to check my stand before I opened that door. I just knew Gort was in there waiting for me.

Hate those damn things.

Is Gort a friend of Marvin?

Jim, may I ask why?

Took me a sec but YES he is a friend of Marvin.

To bastardize a line from Batchelor party....

This being Gort

Already sent my deposit in with Starlink for internet access in the near future. Should work out well at my creek cabin.

These the ones that show a line of “lights” that folks call the sheriff about?

For a few days, yes. After that, they separate and raise their altitude until they're invisible.

Guilty..
It was a day or two later when I called asking if anyone else saw anything. Nice folks, they found out after asking around and called me back . Said I was lucky to see it. It does not look like any satellite you have ever seen.

I came this close to calling Sierra!

Thanks, rocky.

Kenjs1 You probably had a lot of company.

I hate the very thought of them.


Well...actually I hate the sight of them more than anything.

Really. I heard the northern tier states would be first to receive access. Did they give you a date?

I hate them because they are going bath the world in internet access. There will be NO limit to what can now be connected to the Internet. That is very, very bad.

Postponed until Thursday at 3:13 am

Not a specific date, but mid to late 2021. The deposit just holds your spot in the order process and is fully refundable if I change my mind.

I think it will be a way to bypass the other biggies in service like cable or providers like ATT, although neither of those is available at the creek site. Funny part, there is a T1 line about a mile or less from the cabin but not accessible.

I got my deposit in for Starlink as well. They're sayig mid to late 2021 in central PA. It will sure beat the 1-2 mbs I'm getting now.

That's exactly what Starlink is meant for: access where no other service is readily available.

Service areas are expanding rapidly. They'll have the whole US covered before the end of summer, and about half the globe by the end of this year. Full global coverage including the oceans by next year. Price should come down as the customer base expands, too.

They have over 1,000 satellites up now, with almost 200 more to be launched this month. Nearly full coverage will come with 2,000.

Yep. I am quite sure that once everyone gets switched over to Starlink that prices will drop.


Quite sure.

Jim, the list of things that people said SpaceX would never accomplish is a long one - and very few of them correct.

Dunno how many satellites circle above us but think it’s approaching crap shoot status re: odds of passing through the belt without collateral damage.

Dan, they are stacked like flight altitudes, and while there are tens of thousands of them up there (counting live and dead satellites, spent rocket stages and larger debris) they're all carefully radar tracked so that ascent profiles and times can be calculated to avoid danger. Not much different from air traffic control, really. Or flight density, come to think of it. If you look at a website like Flight Tracker, you'd swear there ought to be midair collisions every few minutes, but if you go out and look at the sky, it's mostly empty.

Dan, they are stacked like flight altitudes, and while there are 22,454 of them up there at this moment (counting live and dead satellites, spent rocket stages and larger debris) they're all carefully radar tracked so that ascent profiles and times can be calculated to avoid danger. Not much different from air traffic control, really. Or flight density, come to think of it. If you look at a website like Flight Tracker, you'd swear there ought to be midair collisions every few minutes, but if you go out and look at the sky, it's mostly empty.

The satellite equivalent of Flight Tracker is HERE

I have mixed feelings on this one, also. The bride made a deposit regardless. Very few options here.

What do you have, Jim? Hughes Net?

Seconded. Internet access in remote places always attracts [bleep] people. Not to mention the light pollution in the night sky.

Tell me how many you see tonight, Boom.

Hell no!

Fiber Optic!



Obama spent a pile of money "stimulating" us with fiber optic.

I still didn't vote for him.

Haha! I saw em last Christmas.

#neverforget

What is final altitude for the starlinks?

chitty people or sattelites?
Anyways, once Elon gets all 42.000 of them up there that'll be a different story, not to mention the networks planned by other companies. Resist the beginnings.
https://archive-media-0.nyafuu.org/out/image/1573/30/1573300336494.webm

What ever the future owner "China" wants it to be.

My guess will be Starlink murder drones at 500 AGL.

This is troubling. With Equinox approaching I will have to ask Mtsnake how the Annunaki can bring the Nephilim if all the satellites are in the way.

Was aware of the tracking schemes, and thank you for that link. Problem I see is the system relies on human input and management. And the simple fact that some manned orbiters have already picked up a scratch or three. Guess on my part, but somebody is going to sign a lucrative contract to be a ‘space janitor’ one of these days.

So far (as far as we know) the hits taken by the Space Shuttle and Space Station have all been micrometeorites the size of sand particles. We've able to track manmade stuff down to the size of a baseball, and have maneuvered manned and unmanned vehicles to avoid getting near other stuff.

You are absolutely correct that the situation isn't getting any better or easier to manage, though. And you were also right about the "garbage collection" forecast. Several companies are developing ways to snag and eliminate space junk.

ironbender, the working altitude for Starlink birds is 340 miles. They are first put into a 200-mile orbit at launch, and then each satellite maneuvers to its place and altitude over a couple of weeks.

Phase I will have 72 orbital tracks with 22 satellites in each track. Here is an image that shows the ground tracks



In addition, they are beginning to put satellites into polar orbits to cover land and sea regions above the latitudes shown.

Thanks rocky. Are they @ 200 when the lineup is typically seen or is that right after launch?

Like they are here

Watching them come out of nowhere and then the train is something to see.

Me and the wife watched them last year before the bitching started.

The "train" is soon after launch, when they're still at low altitude. And each one is now fitted with a sun shade that reduces its reflectivity a lot - in response to complaints by astronomers. Even then, they are only visible within an hour or so after sunset or before dawn.

Edit: Still targeting 3:13 am (EST) Thursday for the next batch, then again on Saturday, and a third batch by the end of the month.

A Starlink installation (six large R2D2's...) was quite the topic not far from our place in north Idaho this past summer.

Tried to get in on the beta. No luck. Now on the $99 pre-order wait list. Got Tera-bit fiber on the pole on the road. But it's long haul to SE Asia and Australia. Can't get on it.

Lol. Well ya got that going for ya.

The launch, booster landing, and satellite deployment all went perfectly last night. Next batch to go up is now set for Sunday at 5:44 am Eastern.