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Category: satellites – Page 86

Elon Musk Says SpaceX Is So Busy With Ukraine That It’ll Delay Starship

Welp, Starship is delayed yet again.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Friday that there would be “slight delays” ahead for the company’s experimental Mars-bound spacecraft. To blame, the billionaire said, was SpaceX having to dedicated more resources to fighting escalating cyber attacks on Starlink satellites by Russia after the space company sent Ukraine a shipment of its internet terminals.

Starship’s first launch has been delayed numerous times now, with much of it due to pending regulatory approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). However, this latest instance comes amidst a time of geopolitical turmoil caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Launch Schedule

As I suspected, SpaceX is now doing well with building laser satellites and is rushing to launch them so, among other things, they can service East Ukraine.

They are launching Starlink satellites from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral SFS (Space Force Station) on March 8th, only 15 days after they launched Starlink satellites from the same tower. At this rate, with their 3 towers, they can do more than 1 launch/week on average.

Last year, SpaceX did 31 orbital launches. This year they will do closer to 62. The last Starlink launch was March 3rd from LC-39A Kennedy Space Center.

Live coverage and the most up-to-date schedule of all upcoming orbital rocket launches, including SpaceX, ULA, Arianespace and others. Check back for live coverage on launch day!

Elon Musk says SpaceX focusing on cyber defense after Starlink signals jammed near Ukraine conflict areas

Musk and SpaceX sent Starlink terminals to Ukraine at the request of a government official after internet service was disrupted across the country by the Russian invasion. A shipment of Starlink ground terminals, which use an antenna and terminal to access the satellite broadband service, arrived in Ukraine by Monday Feb. 28). With the terminals in use, SpaceX is working to keep them online, Musk said.

“Some Starlink terminals near conflict areas were being jammed for several hours at a time,” Musk wrote in a Twitter statement Friday (March 1). “Our latest software update bypasses the jamming.”

I wonder how many of the satellites are damaged?

Starship and Starlink V2 progress will be delayed, Musk said.

US Military Announces Plans for Satellite Orbiting the Moon

The US military is looking to have spy satellites patrol the Moon’s orbit, according to a recently shared video first spotted by Ars Technica.

The two-minute video, titled “Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS)” and uploaded by the US Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) this week, details the project.

“Until now, the United States space mission extended 22,000 miles above Earth,” a narrator explains in the brief video. “That was then, this is now.”

Watch a SpaceX rocket fly for a record 11th time

Elon Musk’s Starlink internet project continues to move forward, launch by launch.

SpaceX launched another 47 internet-beaming satellites from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday morning.

Nine minutes after launch, the Falcon 9 rocket’s first stage that lifted the Starlink satellites returned to the planet, making a perfect landing on the *Just Read the Instructions* drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

## SpaceX launches 47 more Starlink satellites after supplying Ukraine with terminals.

The event marked the 11th successful landing for this specific Falcon 9 booster, tying it for the record of most flights with another Falcon 9 in the SpaceX fleet. In the past, the booster that lifted today’s payload has taken the Transporter 2 into space (June 2021), the Turksat 5A (January 2021), and launched the GPS III SV03 mission (June 2020) — in addition to seven other earlier Starlink payloads, according to SpaceX officials on the live stream of the launch.

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How will Ukraine keep SpaceX’s Starlink internet service online?

Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continue to take lives and destroy infrastructure as the country invades. This infrastructure damage has disrupted internet access in Ukraine, leading a government official to publicly request Starlink satellite internet access for the country from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Musk obliged, activating Starlink service in Ukraine and sending additional hardware. But with continued attacks on infrastructure, how will Ukraine stay connected?

Fedorov brings up an important point: Even though Starlink operates without the need for traditional internet infrastructure, the Earth-bound hardware still needs power. And, as Russian attacks bombard the country, Ukraine’s internet access will continue to be threatened.

Fedorov’s statement publicly reached out for help acquiring generators to keep Starlink online for Ukrainians. But Musk responded with an alternative suggestion.

“Solar panels + battery pack better than generator, as no heat signature or smoke & doesn’t run out of fuel,” Musk wrote in response on Twitter.

Elon Musk has some ideas.

China complains of close encounters with SpaceX Starlink satellites, Conducts preventive maneuvers to avoid collisions

SpaceX Starlink satellites twice approached the Chinese Space Station (CSS) in orbit, prompting China to warn of “close contacts” with Elon Musk’s space program.

Both the July 1 and October 21 incidents prompted the Chinese spacecraft to perform collision avoidance maneuvers. The Chinese team told the UN secretary-general in a diplomatic statement they provided earlier this month that on both occasions there were crew members on board, “which might represent a hazard to the lives or health of astronauts.”

Since its launch on April 29, the CSS “Tiangong” has maintained a nearly circular orbit at a height of around 390 kilometers with an orbital inclination of about 41.5 degrees.

China’s Shijian-21 towed dead satellite to a high graveyard orbit

HELSINKI — China’s Shijian-21 space debris mitigation satellite has docked with a defunct Chinese satellite to drastically alter its geostationary orbit, demonstrating capabilities only previously exhibited by the United States.

Data and tracking from space monitoring firms show that Shijian-21 has been conducting sophisticated rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) with other objects in and around the geostationary orbit belt since its launch in October last year.

This activity culminated in Shijian-21 docking with the defunct Beidou-2 G2 navigation satellite and towing it above the crowded belt of geostationary orbit some 36,000 kilometers above the equator.

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