• Nighed@sffa.community
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    1 year ago

    I think the current problem is that as the gen 2 satellites are bigger and heavier they can’t launch as many.

      • Nighed@sffa.community
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        1 year ago

        Yes, but that probably doesn’t help in the next few years. (Expecting a few more fireballs)

        They may need to seriously up the Falcon9 launch cadence or switch back to gen 1 sats. (Unless the better capabilities of the gen 2 sats mean they need less up there - I thought that the number was more due to low coverage due to altitude though)

        • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          They’ve already got prototype Starship upper stages built that have the cargo door necessary for launching Starlink satellites from, I think “a few years” is likely a very pessimistic timeframe at this point. If they’re not launching Starlink satellites with Starship at some point next year I will be very surprised.

          • Nighed@sffa.community
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            1 year ago

            The problem is that due to the scale of the rocket/explosions the regulators are being more picky - their test rate is much reduced. If their not allowed to launch again for months after the last failure then it could easily take that long.