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The Federal Communications Commission has approved SpaceX's request to fly over a broad band of future Internet satellites at a lower orbit than originally planned. The approval was a major regulatory hurdle for the company to launch its first operational satellites from Florida next month.
In November, SpaceX asked the FCC to partially revise plans for the company's Internet constellation called Starlink. Under the initial agreement between SpaceX and the Commission, the company was authorized to launch 4,425 Starlink satellites in orbits between 1,110 and 1,325 km. But SpaceX has decided to launch 1,584 of these satellites in different orbits, thanks to the teachings of its first two test satellites, TinTin A and B. Instead of traveling 1,150 kilometers, the company now wants to do a lot further down 550 kilometers.
And now, the FCC is on board. "This approval underscores the FCC's confidence in SpaceX's plans to deploy its next-generation satellite constellation and connect people around the world with reliable, affordable broadband service," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. .
SpaceX says that by operating satellites in this orbit, the Starlink constellation will have much lower signal latency, which will reduce the transmission time to just 15 milliseconds. The lower orbit also means that SpaceX can get the same coverage with 16 fewer satellites, and the company says the change will help reduce space debris. At 550 km, satellites are more affected by the Earth's atmosphere and are coming out of their orbit much faster than the vehicles above. Thus, if one of the Starlink satellites breaks down and becomes unusable, it should fall out of its orbit and burn up quickly in the atmosphere.
However, not everyone was happy with updated plans from SpaceX. OneWeb, another company developing a large satellite Internet network, and satellite operator Kepler Communications have both filed applications to reject SpaceX's request to amend the FCC. Both argue that since SpaceX uses similar frequencies, Starlink satellites could interfere with their satellites if they were moved to a lower orbit. But ultimately, the FCC did not think the interference would be a problem. "We note that SpaceX's proposed modification does not present a significant interference problem and is in the public interest," the FCC wrote in its approval.
Concerns were also expressed about an increased risk of collision if the satellites changed altitude because the other operators had satellites in similar orbits. But the FCC said that SpaceX had made a statement to the Commission about its plans to remove satellites and that its vehicles would no longer be a risk because they would have propellants and could maneuver out of the way. satellite in orbit. "We do not find any reason to postpone action on SpaceX's change request as some commentators ask," the FCC wrote. A recent NASA study revealed that the satellites of these huge constellations will have to be reliably removed within five years in order to avoid a dramatic increase in the number of collisions.
In the long term, SpaceX plans to launch a total of nearly 12,000 satellites to provide Internet coverage in all regions of the world. The company is not the only one interested in such a project at the moment. OneWeb had already launched six satellites in February, the first batch of 650 satellites planned to provide global low-orbit Internet coverage. And recently, Amazon announced an ambitious project to create 3,236 satellites for the same purpose, as part of a new initiative called Project Kuiper.
Time is running out for SpaceX to turn its Starlink constellation into reality. The approval of this constellation by the FCC is conditional on SpaceX's ability to launch at least half of these satellites over the next six years. SpaceX said in its November release that it expected to exceed that deadline. "Starlink's production is well advanced and the first group of satellites has already arrived at the launch site for processing," said Shotwell in his statement. SpaceX plans to launch its first batch of Starlink satellites from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in May.
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