Credit to Morgan McFall-Johnsen Nov 3, 2020 About 1 in 40 of SpaceX's Starlink satellites may have failed. That's not too bad, but across a 42,000-spacecraft constellation it could spark a crisis. https://lnkd.in/gfg3KNKM ● SpaceX has launched nearly 900 Starlink internet satellites, with plans for a constellation of 12,000 to 42,000 spacecraft this decade. ● The company says its satellites can avoid collisions using an ion drive, but about 2.5% may have failed because they are no longer maneuvering in orbit, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell. ● Orbiting satellites that can't be maneuvered can crash into other spacecraft and generate dangerous space debris. Until recently the apparent failure rate was about 3%, but new batches of Starlink spacecraft seem to have improved the average rate to around 2.5%. ● A roughly 2.5% failure rate isn't too bad in the industry, McDowell says, but if that number holds for SpaceX's entire planned fleet, it may lead to more than 1,000 dead satellites.
Steven Y.
1mo
Their orbit decays in under 5-6 years. This is a non issue. Business insider is a terrible source.
LU PADILLA
4w
Are tax payers / consumers going to be forced to pay to clean up the mess and damage Space X caused?
Great. We’re about to allow corporations to pollute space like they pollute the rest of the environment, without any payment or responsibility to clean up the messes they create. Classic laissez faire capitalism.
Hans Godard
4w
Humans treat Earth like a trashbin, so why not space, come on it’s exciting !
Wayne Couch
4w
Need to shoot for a six-sigma failure rate - Jack Welch lives!
Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering Interested in rocket propulsion and structures
1moAs of 2020 they were launching an early version of the satellite. By now I’m sure their failure is significantly less than 2.5%, though I cannot find a source more recent than 4 years old with a quick google search. Considering 4 years ago they had just begun hopping a massive rocket and has now performed multiple close to orbit tests where in one case they caught the largest flying object ever created on the first try, I’m confident they’ve gotten those numbers down. Especially as that 4 year old source even shows a 0.5% improvement within the first few batches.