US court backs FCC decision to let SpaceX fly Starlink sats at lower altitudes

Judges in the US have upheld the FCC's decision to allow SpaceX Starlink satellites to fly at a lower altitude. SpaceX was last year given permission to launch more than 2,000 of its broadband-beaming satellites at 540 to 570 km above Earth instead of its usual 1,100 to 1,300 km range. It was hoped that flying the hardware …

[gandalfcn]

Judge Leon "I Am The Law" Musk strikes again.

[Will Godfrey]

The only information I get from this comment is that you appear to have an obsessive hatred of Musk

[gandalfcn]

No, it was satire. It is what grown ups do.

[gandalfcn]

The downvoters are obviously unaware that by downvoting they are proving me correct. A grown up would have ignored it. Toys. Pram.

[Martin-73]

Nooo, it's me who has an obsessive hatred of the sociopath :)

[dave 76]

if you are going to complain to the courts....

There are a multitude of things that you can rightly accuse Musk of doing but this one seems like a perfectly reasonable decision. Viasat should have turned up with a stronger argument.

[Richard Boyce]

Re: if you are going to complain to the courts....

Making allegations in court, simply on a wing and a prayer, with no evidence, may be seen to be professionally vexatious and suggests desperation.

[Jellied Eel]

Re: if you are going to complain to the courts....

Making allegations in court, simply on a wing and a prayer, with no evidence, may be seen to be professionally vexatious and suggests desperation.

You.. err.. might want to ask Twitter about that one..

[gandalfcn]

Re: if you are going to complain to the courts....

I know, Seems the obvious piss take was too obvious.

[gandalfcn]

Re: if you are going to complain to the courts....

But the liars (is that the correct spelling?) want to drag it out as long as possible.

[Will Godfrey]

Translation

We can't compete, so lets throw some shit and see if any of it will stick.

[Spanners]

Not really an item for the US courts

The USA is only a small proportion of the Earth's surface.

Google tells me it is "9.834 million km²" and the whole planet is "510.1 million km²". I make that over 1.9%. The US is responsible for less than 1/52 for its flight path. I think this means Canada has a greater say and Russia has much bigger claim to relevance!

[Martin-73]

Re: Not really an item for the US courts

it's ok, the Chinese will shoot it down in revenge for Huawei's ban :)

[The Man Who Fell To Earth]

Altitude

"SpaceX was last year given permission to launch more than 2,000 of its broadband-beaming satellites at 540 to 570 km above Earth instead of its usual 1,100 to 1,300 km range."

Every Starlink in the sky is at 550km or lower. What is this sentence talking about? https://satellitemap.space/

[Notas Badoff]

Re: Altitude

Yes, someone's very confused here. Launches 'til now were to ~550 km region. SpaceX had previous approval for launches to an additional 1100-1300 km region, but had not done any yet (?). The new request was to allow the additional (?) satellites instead (?) to target (oops) the original ~550 km range. But (IANAE) I am not an enthusiast, so this may deviate from the ring of truth.