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On June 3rd, SpaceX successfully launched a batch of 60 Starlink internet satellites into orbit.
The Falcon-9 rocket which was used as the launch vehicle successfully landed and was recovered and it was the same one that had been used 4 times in the past.
The rocket featured in the flight is the second Falcon 9 first stage to fly five times. The booster previously launched two other Starlink missions as well as a batch of Iridium NEXT satellites and a Canadian communications satellite.
The flight is the eighth 60-satellite mission for SpaceX’s Starlink project, bringing the total number of satellites launched for the nascent broadband network up to 482.
Currently, SpaceX, a commercial entity, has the largest satellite fleet of all time. Ever since its first launch, the company has come under fire from astronomers and scientists around the world over concerns that the constellation’s apparent brightness will disrupt astronomical observations.
SpaceX has plans to build a constellation of Starlink satellites 12,000 strong. The project is designed to provide high-speed internet service to customers around the world, in particular those in remote areas.
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has said that at least 400 Starlink craft are needed before SpaceX can begin to roll out minimal internet coverage, and the company requires at least 800 satellites to provide moderate coverage.
This could potentially start later this year.
Currently, around the globe there are approximately 5,000 satellites, in total, SpaceX plans to introduce more than twice more. As of 2018, out of those nearly 5,000, only 40%, or about 2,000 are actually operational. As such, SpaceX currently represents nearly 500, or 25% of all active satellites, and plans to increase the number of active satellites 6 times.
In February 2020, the US Air Force and SpaceX announced that they would collaborate for a live fire exercise on April 8th.
Air Force acquisition chief William Roper told reporters at the Pentagon that the Air Force and SpaceX will conduct an event on April 8, together with other branches of the U.S. military, that will see SpaceX Starlink satellites link up with multiple armed forces systems in a “massive” live fire exercise.
The demonstration will reportedly involve shooting down a drone and a cruise missile and will take place at several different sites including Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. The massive tests will also include ground forces, submarines, ships, and a variety of space-based assets.
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Incoming hateful comments
Just what the world needs – more global hegemony. I will hug myself with glee if an orbiting flake of paint destroys one of those
Fear, fear the technology!
Dude, they’re literally talking about building Skynet with that exercise.
What exercise? They are sending Interned satelites on the orbit.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32346/the-air-force-and-spacex-are-teaming-up-for-a-massive-live-fire-exercise
That’s a 25 February article, before corona lock down. It says that spacex commercial satellites can be used for military purposes in cooperation with Pentagon. You must be naive to not acknowledge that every commercial satellite can be used by the military.
That’s not the fucking point and you damn well know it! You are not retarded so don’t act like you are. You must be naive to think that a globally integrated Joint All-Domain Command and Control network that implements “on-demand” launch capabilities, has already connected with an AC-130 gunship and leverages the latest in artificial intelligence doesn’t sound scary.
I don’t know, Bobby. Me thinks Military always pioneers in technlogy which later brings huge benefits to all of us, like nuclear energy or Internet.
How can I argue with such impeccable logic? You’ve even convinced me that Hitler was actually a great guy, the guy who brought us affordable cars, national highways, laws against cruelty to animals and the very rockets that enable satellites in the first place shouldn’t be feared, should they?
The part with the rockets is true. And maybe a bit from each other examples. Don’t be afraid of technoligy, mate, it’s inevitable and fear could hurt your health more than a network of satelites. We’ll die soon anyway, it’s your choice.
You’re lost mate, thankfully the collapse of your Empire is inevitable. I wonder if you’ll learn to fear these technologies when the Chinese are using them against you.
I think the AI is already used before Musk’s satellites
Good tech, sad that Musk is down with the MIC though. I guess that Tony Stark wannabe thing is hard to shake. Would be nice if he developed a satellite or two to clean up all the junk too!
That “exercise” is insane, someone either never watched Terminator or watched it waaaay too much.
Digital is 666 and is arriving sixty satellites at a time. 5g and vaccinations with bio chips will allow for real time monitoring of all humans. Technology can be good or horribly bad. So far humans have opted for the bad.
Does anyone of sound mind actually believe they are launching 12,000 satellites so you can send your cute kitty picture to grandma or talk to a business partner on the other side of the planet? We can already do this. Does anyone believe they are doing this so backward indigenous tribes around the world can connect…. ?
I don’t fear the technology,,, I fear what humans will do with it!
We’re already seeing the death of culture and this will make it worse