SpaceX Internet Satellite Network: Starlink

[jdevo2004]

Now this is pretty cool.

 

[Electroman]

Can someone develop a 'spot the starlink' website, similar to NASA's 'Spot the ISS' ?

 

[mongo]

Can we see them?

Yes (got that very wrong in my first response)

Twitter

Can we know where they are?

Satmap

 

[EVCollies]

Now this is pretty cool.

The youtube comments are hilarious...

I know this batch won't be as visible as they spread out but what will the sky look like with thousands of these low altitude sats?

 

[EVCollies]

Yes (got that very wrong in my first response)

Twitter



Satmap

WOW, the equator is sure busy on that Satmap.

Using the menu upper left you can select just Starlinks, the Tintin twins are visible along with the batch of 60.

 

[jerry33]

The youtube comments are hilarious...

I know this batch won't be as visible as they spread out but what will the sky look like with thousands of these low altitude sats?

About the same as it does now because in most places light pollution blocks out any view of the sky.

 

[N5329K]

Now this is pretty cool.

Robin

 

[Nikxice]

WOW, the equator is sure busy on that Satmap.

Using the menu upper left you can select just Starlinks, the Tintin twins are visible along with the batch of 60.

Does the Satmap site support any Starlink orbital predictions? Only seeing the current position. I'm hopeful that a site like http://heavens-above.com might be able to generate something soon, even if it's only temporary. Good news is that with all the upcoming Starlink launches, future sunset/sunrise viewing opportunities will abound. Great PR if SpaceX is ever willing to share predictions beforehand. This can easily replace the "high" gotten by viewing the 'soon to be obsolete' Iridium flares.

 

[billh13850]

When can I sign up??!!??

 

[dhanson865]

When can I sign up??!!??

likely 6 months or longer before they'll even consider any customers. Watch the SpaceX launch schedule and check Starlink after each new launch. Eventually they'll put some sort of pricing info there.

 

[Nikxice]

Using this Starlink 0.9 tracker website might provide a glimpse of the satellites before they disperse. Easy enough to search for the specific latitude and longitude coordinates for Anytown and then just plug in. Happy hunting!
http://me.cmdr2.org/starlink/

 

[Buckminster]

I thought it was a very positive update on Starlink yesterday.

Successful deployment and testing of Starlink's first 60 satellites over the next few days should significantly increase Starlink's probability of building a viable business.

Key updates:

• Recent Spacex funding rounds have been oversubscribed (disproving TSLAQ's SpaceXQ FUD). Elon thinks Spacex now has enough capital to get Starlink operational.
• Targeting 3-5% of the $1trn worldwide telecommunications revenue. So $30-50bn revenue.
• 60 satellites in first launch. 12 launches will cover the US. 24 will provide decent global coverage. Can begin selling services with c.400 satellites. Need c.1000 to be economically viable. Will continue to add satellites to meet demand.
• Falcons can potentially launch 1-2k per year.
• Targeting sub-20ms latency
• Each launch has "about a terabit of useful connectivity".
• Each Starlink costs more to launch than it does to make, even with the reused Falcon 9.

Assuming a launch cost of $20m for a reused Falcon, these updates suggest a c.$333k launch cost per satellite and below $333k production cost. I don't see how Oneweb competes with this when it looks like they are paying $50m per launch of c.30 satellites (so $1.7m per satellite, which are also much smaller), with an initial production cost of $1m (targeting $0.5m) and what looks like only 60% of Starlink's bandwidth per satellite (implied by numbers here Musk says Starlink “economically viable” with around 1,000 satellites - SpaceNews.com). So it looks like SpaceX capex cost per Gigabit/second is at least 6x lower, perhaps 10x.
If this satellite deployment goes well, I expect Elon will be thinking the global satellite broadband race is also "Game, set and match".

What is that plan for ground antenna? US citizens need to be able to buy them to use Starlink by end 2019.

Great website:
Starlink

 

[GolanB]

What is that plan for ground antenna? US citizens need to be able to buy them to use Starlink by end 2019.

Great website:
Starlink

There isn't much yet available on this, but I did find this:

We still don’t know a lot about the Starlink system. For instance, what do its ground stations look like? Unlike Ubiquitilink, you can’t receive a Starlink signal directly on your phone. So you’ll need a receiver, which Musk has said in the past is about the size of a pizza box. But small, large, or extra large? Where can it be mounted, and how much does it cost?

In a media briefing last week Musk described it in slightly more specific terms: “It’s like a flat disc, but unlike a, say, a DirecTV satellite dish which has to point in a specific direction, has to point very precisely at the geostationary satellite. In the case of a Starlink dish, you can basically kind of put it at almost any angle that is reasonably pointed at the sky.”
​

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/24/s...ink-info-after-launch-of-first-60-satellites/

 

[mspohr]

Using this Starlink 0.9 tracker website might provide a glimpse of the satellites before they disperse. Easy enough to search for the specific latitude and longitude coordinates for Anytown and then just plug in. Happy hunting!
SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker

An astronomer captured SpaceX’s recently-launched StarLink satellites on video

 

[dhanson865]

Just saw the sat train pass by. We watched from our back porch in Knoxville, TN.

They were brighter than I expected, easy to see through haze and city light pollution (both downtown and in our neighborhood we have lots of light pollution)

We didn't pick them up visually until they were basically directly overhead the light pollution/clouds masked their climb through our southern view.

 

[dhanson865]

Just saw the sat train pass by. We watched from our back porch in Knoxville, TN.

They were brighter than I expected, easy to see through haze and city light pollution (both downtown and in our neighborhood we have lots of light pollution)

We didn't pick them up visually until they were basically directly overhead the light pollution/clouds masked their climb through our southern view.

 

[S'toon]

A Dutch website set up to record UFO sightings was flooded early Saturday with reports after a "train of stars" was spotted crossing the Netherlands' skies, sparking fears of an alien invasion.

But what some thought to be a close encounter of the third kind turned out to be a string of some 60 satellites launched by U.S.-based SpaceX hours earlier as part of its "Starlink" constellation.

The row of satellites which are part of a plan by billionaire Elon Musk's firm to provide internet from space, glided across Dutch skies around 1:00 am local time.

Shortly afterwards, Dutch website www.ufomeldpunt.nl was inundated with more than 150 sighting reports, with astonished spotters describing a "bizarre train of stars or lights moving across the skies at constant speed."

"There's a long line of lights. Faster than a plane. Huh?" one spotter reported, while another called it a "star caravan" and one saying "I have it on film".

One spotter simply texted: "WTF?"

"I didn't know what to make of it," an unnamed witness later told the NOS public broadcaster.

<snip>

Full article at:
Close encounters? SpaceX satellites spark Dutch UFO frenzy

 

[Mike1080i]

Just saw the sat train pass by. We watched from our back porch in Knoxville, TN.

They were brighter than I expected, easy to see through haze and city light pollution (both downtown and in our neighborhood we have lots of light pollution)

We didn't pick them up visually until they were basically directly overhead the light pollution/clouds masked their climb through our southern view.

Same here near Atlanta, I could only see them when they were almost directly overhead and appeared to flare slightly.

 

[dhanson865]

Same here near Atlanta, I could only see them when they were almost directly overhead and appeared to flare slightly.

I saw a ton of flaring (reflections from the solar panels, like chrome on a car in front of you blinding you with reflected sunlight).

But I was also able to see them when they were dimmer, between/after flaring as they passed to the north.

I used SpaceX Starlink Satellites Tracker to see the time, got lucky with the cloud cover tonight.

 

[bxr140]

WOW, the equator is sure busy on that Satmap.

Be advised much of that equatorial activity is GEO--you're looking at a 2D projection of multiple orbit types. There are some other 3D sat trackers out there, but none of them seem to be comprehensive and/or they're not actually real time. But, you can still better appreciate the mix of low/mid/geo orbits with them.

One interesting aspect that map (and similar maps) illustrates is the equatorial O3B orbits, which are something like 1/4 or 1/3 the altitude of GEOs. O3B is, basically, older tech satellite internet and so is a ‘competitor’ of Starlink as much as there could possibly be such a thing, but their constellation solution is many fewer satellites that each have a bunch of individually steerable antennas, all on equatorial orbits.

Using this Starlink 0.9 tracker website might provide a glimpse of the satellites before they disperse.

Yeah, once they actually spread out into their orbits (if these 60 actually do...), it will likely be difficult to distinguish them from other LEO satellites, even if you know where you think you should look. It’s not like Station where it’s going to be so different from anything else in the sky.

I mean, just by numbers odds are you’re going to be seeing a starlink, but you can already see a bunch of leo sats now if you just stare at the sky.