[HN Gopher] SpaceX's Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Have Started F...
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       SpaceX's Next-Gen Starlink Satellites Have Started Falling from
       Space
        
       Author : talboren
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2023-04-05 20:32 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gizmodo.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gizmodo.com)
        
       | dmonitor wrote:
       | Pretty click-bait article. Headline and first paragraph make it
       | sound like they are deorbiting due to a propulsion failure, but
       | the rest clarifies that they are intentionally deorbiting in a
       | controlled manner.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | Yeah. The satellite failed to orbit so they basically
         | instructed it to disintegrate in the atmosphere as safely as
         | possible.
        
           | talboren wrote:
           | yeah.. so I wouldn't say "intentionally", just sounds like
           | something went wrong and they have this fail-safe mechanism
           | that makes it "okay"
        
         | muskygpt wrote:
         | [flagged]
        
         | talboren wrote:
         | well.. it got my attention and had me thinking how's something
         | like that just goes silently "under the radar"
        
       | verdverm wrote:
       | They were test articles for the next gen, mini-v2's, only some of
       | them had issues and were intentionally deorbited. Others will be
       | elevated to intended orbits and continue to validate the many new
       | technologies onboard
        
         | talboren wrote:
         | wonder if this is somehow regulated or anybody with sufficient
         | resources can just do these tests? what happens if it doesn't
         | get burned when returning to the atmosphere?
        
           | wcoenen wrote:
           | The FCC is the relevant regulator. Starlinks are designed to
           | burn up completely[1].
           | 
           | We've come a long way since the days of nuclear reactor re-
           | entry[2] oopsies.
           | 
           | [1] https://spectrum.ieee.org/spacex-claims-to-have-
           | redesigned-i...
           | 
           | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954
        
           | verdverm wrote:
           | The FCC regulates US satellites, besides military, iirc. They
           | are designed to disintegrate, returning orbital velocity is
           | quite catastrophic. It's harder to design something to
           | survive
        
             | talboren wrote:
             | TIL
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-05 23:02 UTC)