Starlink Satellite Constellation of SpaceX
b'Starlink Satellite Constellation of SpaceX satellite bus and requisite customer ground transceivers to implement a new spaceborne Internet communication system.\\n\\nSpaceX has said it will offer speeds of up to 1 Gbit/s, with latencies between 25 ms and 35 ms. Those latencies would make SpaceX\'s service comparable to cable and fiber, while existing satellite broadband services have latencies of 600 ms or more, according to FCC measurements. Commission) for a license to operate a constellation of 4425 non-geostationary satellites (NGS) in orbits ranging from 1100 and 1300 km. However, when they issued their regulatory filings in 2017, the plan called for the deployment of nearly 12,000 satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). 1)\\n\\nHowever, competition from other satellite internet providers forced SpaceX to expedite their plans. By the Fall of 2018, the company announced a new plan to deploy their first batch of 1600 satellites to a lower altitude at 550 km. The development team also introduced a simplified design so that the first batch would be ready to go no later than the June of 2019.\\n\\nRather than broadcasting in two bands ("Ku" and "Ka"), the simplified design of the first batch will broadcast only in the "Ku" band. At present, SpaceX hopes to launch 2200 satellites in the next five years, which will act as a sort of prototype while the company develops an improved design for full-scale production.\\n\\nEventually, this will result in a constellation that offers the kinds of performance outlined in the company\'s original plan. This presents numerous challenges, not the least of which is the fact that they will need to conduct launches every month for the next five years, averaging 44 satellites per launch.\\n\\nSecond, there\'s the matter of attrition, as satellites will begin to deorbit after a few years and SpaceX will need to replace them regularly in order to maintain its constellation. In fact, Hugh Lewis \\u2013 the UK Space Agency\'s representative on the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee \\u2013 recently stated that in order to maintain a constellation of just 4425 satellites, SpaceX will have to launch that many every five years.'