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Elon Musk’s SpaceX is surging ahead in the race to cover the planet with fast, low-latency internet beamed down from space. Xi Jinping and Jeff Bezos are just getting started while Europe, to nobody’s surprise, is mired in bureaucracy and woefully behind despite launching its first internet satellites back in 2019.
Can a move-fast-and-break-things approach create the next-gen rocket?
For the third time in a row, a Starship test ended in a “rapid unscheduled disassembly,” after tumbling toward the Indian Ocean rather than making the planned controlled descent and soft splashdown.
As noted by Space.com, this mission ran into issues trying to achieve several goals: the reused Super Heavy booster rocket broke up about six minutes into the flight instead of splashing down in the Gulf of Mexico, they were unable to test deploying eight Starlink satellite dummies, and then the ship lost control about a half-hour after launch due to a leak in its fuel tank systems.
At 7:30PM ET, an hour-long launch window is scheduled to open for the ninth test of SpaceX’s Starship vehicle. After the seventh and eighth flight tests ended in massive explosions, the FAA has expanded the hazard area and required SpaceX to schedule its launch during “non-peak transit periods.”
Soon we’ll find out if the extra precaution is necessary for this flight. (Update: It launched, but experienced another rapid unscheduled disassembly.)
The Information reports that three years ago, Musk offered Apple an 18-month exclusive connection via SpaceX in return for $5 billion up front, and $1 billion per year after that to support satellite-connected iPhone features. If Apple didn’t take it within 72 hours, he threatened to announce a competing feature.
Apple went forward with Globalstar (the report also mentions a canceled “Project Eagle” effort with Boeing that would’ve delivered full-blown internet service), and before the iPhone 14 launched, Starlink announced a deal with T-Mobile. Later that year, Musk and Cook met at Apple HQ to discuss Twitter’s App Store presence, “among other things.”
[theinformation.com]
No, not those sorts of drugs, the kinds that could save your life.
Humanity lives to fight another day after the failed Soviet lander re-entered our atmosphere at 2:24AM ET on Saturday before harmlessly splashing down in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta, Indonesia, according to Russia’s space agency Roscosmos. Kosmos 482 became trapped in Earth’s orbit shortly after launching in 1972 and has been circling the planet for more than five decades.
The new gate-to-gate experience offers blistering fast Wi-Fi speeds, slower upload speeds, and low enough latency to make video calls possible (but not encouraged).
Even if Musk plans to take a step back from DOGE, his influence grows with each Starlink launch. Space is getting crowded with satellite internet companies vying to control the future of our information flows. Musk is crowding out the competition.
“Musk is clearly imagining a future in which neither his network nor his will can be restrained by the people of this world,” Ross Andersen writes in The Atlantic.
[theatlantic.com]
It’s slightly smaller than the 2,354-piece Discovery set that debuted in 2021, but Lego’s new Space Shuttle Enterprise is part of a larger 2,417-piece set that includes a buildable replica of the Boeing 747 that NASA used for testing and moving its shuttles around the country.
The $229.99 Lego Icons Shuttle Carrier Aircraft will be available for purchase starting on May 15th for Lego Insiders, and May 18th for everyone else.
In a video posted by the Amazon Project Kuiper LinkedIn account, we see what Ars Technica calls the first look at the low-Earth orbit satellites Amazon launched earlier this week to face off with Starlink.
Ars draws some conclusions about them based on the fuzzy video, noting that their trapezoidal design is comparable to SpaceX competitor Eutelsat’s OneWeb satellites.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellite mega constellation is just the beginning.
It’s gathering “extremely precise” wind measurements using an instrument that sends out 200 laser pulses per second from an aircraft. By documenting how those pulses bounce off aerosol particles, NASA’s able to create 3D profiles showing wind speed and direction.
The hope is that this can make up for a dearth in data on winds above the surface of the Earth, which could lead to more accurate storm forecasts.
Amazon’s Project Kuiper is required to send 1,600 internet satellites into space by next summer under its FCC license, but sources tell Bloomberg that Project Kuiper is falling behind. The company has reportedly produced only “a few dozen” satellites so far, which means Amazon may need to ask for an extension from the FCC.
Project Kuiper’s first launch is now scheduled for April 28th after its initial attempt was scrubbed.
DOGE is gutting the agency that enforces environmental laws Elon Musk’s companies have been accused of breaking.
After finding the Elon Musk-owned Starlink’s terminals on the roof of the General Services Administration — which a law professor quoted by The Associated Press called a “choke point for all agencies” — federal staffers had concerns.
IT staffers, who reported the discovery to superiors, were concerned that the devices were not authorized to be used at GSA and DOGE might be utilizing them to siphon off agency data...
Through the lens of the war between Ukraine and Russia, The Wall Street Journal writes about Europe’s need to replace Starlink, with one quote neatly summing up why:
“If you put all your eggs in an American basket, it will not be good for Italy,” said Christophe Grudler, a French member of the European Parliament. “Imagine if tomorrow Musk says: I want to cut the signal to Italy.”
But one possible alternative, Europe’s Eutelsat, would likely “need billions of dollars in funding” to compete.
Trump’s pick to lead NASA, Jared Isaacman, found it strangely difficult to tell his Senate confirmation hearing whether Elon Musk was part of his job interview or not. That’s odd, because he must have met Musk — Isaacman funded, and flew on, two private spaceflights using Musk’s SpaceX craft.
Isaacman says Mars will be NASA’s new priority if he’s in charge. Strangely enough, that’s where SpaceX is putting its money too.
A ULA Atlas V rocket carrying the first of 80 or so batches of satellites for Amazon’s Starlink competitor was scheduled for a launch attempt tonight, with the window opening between 7PM and 9PM ET. Bad weather, however, has forced a delay. Launch partner United Launch Alliance will provide a new window when approved.
