Post B86bPPCD0vEDkcUZlY by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
 (DIR) More posts by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
 (DIR) Post #B86bPIzw3dqUWohgno by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       I missed reading Starlink's latest conjunction report when it came out a bit over a month ago.  I just skimmed through it and I think I need to go lay down for a while.  It's terrifying how close we are to major collisions in orbit all the time... (I especially love the note about how space-track.org being offline briefly caused them to miss a potential collision... SO FRAGILE AAUGH)Article summarizing the report here: https://ca.pcmag.com/networking/16653/260-starlink-satellites-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-as-more-head-for-fiery-endsFull report here: https://www.scribd.com/document/1057502572/SpaceX-Gen1-Gen2-Semi-Annual-Report-7-1-26
       
 (DIR) Post #B86bPJXy174GEMcrqa by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       Oh gosh I just did the math on the maneuver rate, which I couldn't bring myself to do earlier.  More than 207,000 collision avoidance maneuvers in 6 months.  That means that somewhere in the Starlink megaconstellation, a satellite is performing a collision avoidance maneuver EVERY 1.25 MINUTES (EVERY 75 SECONDS)AAAHHHH I'M SURE THAT'S FINE.And now I find myself reading about asteroid collisional cascades.  For no particular reason...
       
 (DIR) Post #B86bPKGzJj52Tzgp1M by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       I mean, to be fair, they have done it perfectly so far.  No Starlink collisions.  But there is a shitload of untracked, lethal debris orbiting around up there.  And they are completely dependent on so many systems (like space-track.org, apparently).  And our future use of orbit is completely dependent on Starlink operating perfectly, every minute of every day, forever.
       
 (DIR) Post #B86bPL76BylR5c4RFI by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       Like their last report, they also have a Shit List of which objects Starlink had to maneuver for the most often, and complained a lot about it.  "SpaceX coordinated with other satellite operators hundreds of times over the reporting period"What they fail to say is that this is because anyone who wants to travel to higher orbits is REQUIRED to coordinate with them, because they effectively control Low Earth Orbit.
       
 (DIR) Post #B86bPNjoR0v5EGCNrk by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       They also have a list of deorbits, I haven't managed to get the pdf from the FCC (because their website fucking sucks, on purpose I'm sure).  And scribd wants me to pay to download it.  Anyway, the PC mag article says 260 Starlinks reentered.  At some point I'll count up the gen 1 and gen 2 and get a mass estimate.  But that's 1 or 2 a day.  And a lot of new weird metal in the stratosphere. Thanks, SpaceX.
       
 (DIR) Post #B86bPPCD0vEDkcUZlY by sundogplanets@mastodon.social
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       They also list 4 "disposal failures" which are satellites that died before SpaceX purposefully chucked them into the atmosphere.  This includes Starlink 34343 which either exploded or got hit by debris a couple months ago.  https://keeptrack.space/deep-dive/starlink-343434 out of thousands of launched satellites is pretty good.  But when you have nearly 11,000 satellites, you have to operate COMPLETELY PERFECTLY every minute of every day, forever. Please don't fuck up more than you already have, SpaceX.