SpaceX lobs second-gen Starlink satellites into orbit Starlink has sent the first batch of its second-generation satellites into orbit today, but not the full-sized hardware CEO Elon Musk promised last year. Instead of the seven-metre-long, 1.25 ton Starlink 2 orbiters Musk claimed wouldn't be launched until the company's Starship vessel managed to do more than explode on the …
If I recall correctly, the Starlink satellites are kept at an altitude that would see them fall back to Earth without periodic station-keeping. Once they're out of fuel, or if station-keeping is turned off, they come down and burn up by default. They would likely only need a de-orbit burn if SpaceX wanted them down now.
Starlink deorbits units all of the time. As of now, they have launched 3950, of which 3236 are operational, with 275 deorbited. You can track & watch it all here: https://satellitemap.space/
My Starlink unit at my cabin is in an area where they just dropped the subscription to $90/month. It's not the best link in the world, but my only alternative is old fashion DSL. So I typically get 70Mbps downlink, 15Mbps uplink, with 35msec latency. Not complaining. Right now, the snow is as high as the unit, which is running it's heater continuously to keep itself above the snow. Maybe in the Spring, I'll invest in a pole for it.
Cost isn't the issue for what I plan to use it for, I'm just concerned Musk will secretly drop the circuit if there's not much use to save money - after all, with the way Twitter is blazing through operational costs with an ever decreasing income as a result of his presence he has to save wherever he can..
I don't think there's anyone on the planet right now who can retrieve a satellite from orbit and renovate it for re-use.
Even if there were, you would consume far more resource launching a (partially) reusable rocket to retrieve it for renovation and then relaunching it than you would just building a new one and launching that.
There are some efforts in the industry to create on-orbit refuelling / operation extension missions, however these are still in their infancy.
Also, I am not a turnip farmer so can offer no advice on that front.
While that's correct, you could put the satellites somewhere where they don't have to be replaced so often. Your latency numbers suffer a little, but fewer satellites can provide a service for much longer if they're in a higher orbit, and this doesn't necessarily mean they have to jump to geosynchronous orbit from LEO.
The article states: "...Musk claimed wouldn't be launched until the company's Starship vessel managed to do more than explode on the pad."
What Starship news have you been reporting on? The last launch of it concluded with a successful landing and was in February of 2021. Since then they've been working on launch facilities and iterating the design of Starship itself AND the Super Heavy boosters, which most recently performed a static fire in preparation for their first orbital attempt which could happen as early as March. I love the Reg, but please report honestly. This boner you seem to have for attacking Musk needs some tempering. His companies aren't him.
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