Starlink has become the 'blood' of Ukraine's communication infrastructure, but officials are reportedly growing concerned about relying on Elon Musk's tech
Starlink has become the 'blood' of Ukraine's communication infrastructure, but officials are reportedly growing concerned about relying on Elon Musk's tech
Ukraine's digital minister said Starlink satellite internet is the "blood" of Ukrainian communication systems.
Ukraine's digital minister has reported concerns about the country's overreliance on Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system amid the war with Russia, The New York Times reports.
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Starlink satellites make up the majority of satellites orbiting Earth
This is so wild to me.
That's just how impactful reusability is. Buying a tank of gas vs a new car.
Reusability has nothing to do with it. Hardly any of the rockets have been reusable (in terms of saving significant money on launches). It's just that spacex is dumping enormous amounts of satellites in LEO. It's going to become a huge problem when other companies/countries does the same.
Its only possible bc a launch is cheap enough for them to do it. Cost of of placing them in orbit is the whole reason there is a problem.
Yes, but that's not because of reusability. They're not at that stage yet (willl they ever?)
What the fuck are you talking about?
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Falcon_9_first-stage_boosters?wprov=sfla1
Yet the cost doesn't go down. Spacex boss defined reuse as that the stage can be reused the next day with just an inspection. The reuse they avtually so is rebuilding it with the older parts. At least last time I checked the cost savings were just a few 10 % while they promised 90+
Edit: did some more checking, and it appears third party(military and government) pay significantly higher launch costs ~100mill vs 60mill list price), so might be they're subsidising the starlink cost by funneling money from the state.
Wow, I wonder why SpaceX which has a monopoly on reusable rockets are charging as much as they can from their customers.
Lol, lmao even
No-one is in the market for launch on a reusable rocket. They're in the market for launch. The reusability is merely how spacex is undercutting the competition.
Spacex in no way has a monopoly on launching payloads. You can launch from North America, Europe or Asia, if you're willing to pay.
Cost didn't go down because there's no competition. They're just pocketing the extra money. Why would a private company charge even less for something they're already the cheapest and best at? Why not make extra money?
ULA I believe said reuse would be profitable for them after 12 launches. For SpaceX, it's likely lower since they're built more from the ground up for reusability. But they're up to reflying 20 times, so it'll be even more profitable for them.
Also, starlink latches have been on older boosters, pushing the max reuses. So they benefit much more from reusability than the average falcon 9 customer.