‘Starlink Is a Very Big Deal’

November 3rd, 2019

This contains some techno-optimist glossolalia, but it’s the most informative piece I’ve found on Starlink so far.

Via: Casey Handmer’s Blog:

Starlink, SpaceX’s plan to serve internet via tens of thousands of satellites, is a staple in the space press, with articles appearing every week on the latest developments. The broad schema is clear and, thanks to filings with the FCC, a sufficiently well motivated individual (such as your humble servant) can deduce a great deal of detail.

Posted in Economy, Elite, Infrastructure, Space, Technology, War | Top Of Page

4 Responses to “‘Starlink Is a Very Big Deal’”

  1. dt says:
    November 3, 2019 at 12:01 pm

    This is my second attempt at rationalizing Starlink (my first was wrong): I am very suspicious that super-heavy lift rockets are designed to deliver military payloads to earth. What kind of targets? Presumably nuclear. Why so heavy? Ask the builders of the B-52, B-1B and B-2. They can all deliver 23 tonne payloads.

    The problem then is a cover story for building such a heavy-lift launcher. For Saturn V it was the moon. For SpaceX Starship it is Starlink. For the Shuttle it was.. er, what was the reason for building a space-plane which could return multi-tonne payloads to earth?

    Presumably the X-37 is part of this program.

  2. Dennis says:
    November 3, 2019 at 10:13 pm

    Great article. Thanks a lot, Kevin.

  3. Dennis says:
    November 4, 2019 at 2:08 am

    @dt

    FWIW, the Buran project was going on at the same time as the shuttle:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_%28spacecraft%29

  4. dt says:
    November 4, 2019 at 5:30 am

    @Dennis. Yes. Questionable source (via the BBC) but this link has:

    Years after a sceptical Pentagon had given up on the shuttle, even as a delivery truck for spy satellites, the Russian officials continued whispering to journalists that the US orbiter had a secret capability – to make an undetected “dive” into the Earth’s atmosphere and suddenly glide over Moscow dropping nuclear bombs.

    Never mind that such a scenario was not supported by physics or by common sense.

    Buran – the Soviet ‘space shuttle’

    Obviously this journalist is much smarter than the Soviet military establishment.

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