Skip to main content

Watch SpaceX launch 60 more Starlink broadband satellites live

SpaceX is set to launch another batch of its Starlink broadband internet satellites this morning, after weather conditions shut down its last two attempts earlier this week. SpaceX is being especially picky about not just launch conditions – but also weather in the recovery area where it hopes to catch the fairing protecting the satellite cargo aboard this Falcon 9 launch.

That secondary mission of fairing recovery will see SpaceX try to catch the two large halves of the protective sheath that covers the rocket’s payload on its way through Earth’s atmosphere to its orbital destination. It uses ships with custom modifications (which essentially amount to large nets suspended above form their deck) designed specifically for this purpose called ‘Ms. Tree’ and ‘Ms. Chief’ to get this done.

SpaceX has successfully caught one fairing half before, but it hasn’t been able to catch any others yet, and has also never caught both halves at the the same time. This is a goal for the company because it would save them having to rebuild a costly part for each launch, saving as much as $6 million per launch according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Because Starlink is SpaceX’s own payload, to add to its growing constellation of broadband internet small satellites ahead of that service’s launch sometime later this year, SpaceX has more flexibility with the launch timing than it would for a third-party client. That means it can wait a bit to try to optimize recovery conditions to hopefully improve its chances of having a good fairing recovery, with better conditions at sea.

This launch will also include a Falcon 9 booster landing, using SpaceX’s seafaring ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ drone ship. SpaceX is of course pretty consistency able to recover these, with a record of success that continues to grown.

Meanwhile, the primary mission will see yet another batch of 60 satellites join two prior groups (plus a first demonstration flock of 60) already in orbit for Starlink. SpaceX eventually hopes to launch many more (as many as 10,000) which will coordinate to provide affordable, high-speed internet to customers around the world, with a service rollout for the U.S. and Canada planned for later this year.

The launch is scheduled for 9:06 AM EST (6:06 AM PST) and the broadcast above will start at 15 minutes prior to that time. If SpaceX needs to shift the mission again, there’s a backup opportunity on January 30 at 8:45 AM EST (5:45 AM PST).



from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/36CU86f
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How To Play Doom – And More – On An NES

Doom was a breakthrough game for its time, and became so popular that now it’s essentially the “Banana For Scale” of hardware hacking. Doom has been ported to countless devices, most of which have enough processing ability to run the game natively. Recently, this lineup of Doom-compatible devices expanded to include the NES even though the system definitely doesn’t have enough capability to run it without special help. And if you want your own Doom NES cartridge, this video will show you how to build it . We featured the original build from [TheRasteri] a while back which goes into details about how it’s possible to run such a resource-intensive game on a comparatively weak system. You just have to enter the cheat code “RASPI”. After all the heavy lifting is done, it’s time to put it into a realistic-looking cartridge. To get everything to fit in the donor cartridge, first the ICs in the cartridge were removed (except the lockout IC) and replaced with custom ROM chips. Some modifica...
Post a Comment
Read more

Try NopSCADlib for your Next OpenSCAD Project

Most readers of this site are familiar by now with the OpenSCAD 3D modeling software, where you can write code to create 3D models. You may have even used OpenSCAD to output some STL files for your 3D printer. But for years now, [nophead] has been pushing OpenSCAD further than most, creating some complex utility and parts libraries to help with modeling, and a suite of Python scripts that generate printable STLs, laser-ready DXFs, bills of material, and human-readable assembly instructions complete with PNG imagery of exploded-view sub-assemblies. Recently [nophead] tidied all of this OpenSCAD infrastructure up and released it on GitHub as NopSCADlib . You can find out more by browsing through the example projects and README file in the repository, and by reading the announcement blog post on the HydraRaptor blog . Some functionality highlights include: a large parts library full of motors, buttons, smooth rod, et cetera many utility functions to help with chamfers, fillets, precis...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Newbie’s Guide To JTAG

Do you even snarf? If not, it might be because you haven’t mastered the basics of JTAG and learned how to dump, or snarf, the firmware of an embedded device. This JTAG primer will get you up to snuff on snarfing, and help you build your reverse engineering skills. Whatever your motivation for diving into reverse engineering devices with microcontrollers, JTAG skills are a must, and [Sergio Prado]’s guide will get you going. He starts with a description and brief history of the Joint Test Action Group interface, from its humble beginnings as a PCB testing standard to the de facto standard for testing, debugging, and flashing firmware onto devices. He covers how to locate the JTAG pads – even when they’ve been purposely obfuscated – including the use of brute-force tools like the JTAGulator . Once you’ve got a connection, his tutorial helps you find the firmware in flash memory and snarf it up to a file for inspection, modification, or whatever else you have planned. We always apprec...
Post a Comment
Read more