Earlier this year serial entrepreneur Elon Musk (think Tesla, SpaceX, solar roof tiles) unleashed the beginnings of another of his ideas, a space-borne system for delivering home internet service, with the corporate name Project Starlink.
I consider myself fortunate to have witnessed the initial rollout of what at the time was called the Starlink “train,” a line of satellites deployed from a single launch.
It was quite a spectacle to see the Musk Starlink satellite “train,” over Vancouver back in May. I managed to see a train of nine satellites, basically in the space of an outstretched hand. Others saw more elsewhere. I was in an industrial park and under a street light so I count myself fortunate to have seen anything. Just amazing.
Those who got to see up to the total of 62 will really remember that sight I am sure. Those who saw this with no foreknowledge of the matter might have been quite shocked. A tractor beam? An invasion fleet? The imagination could run wild. Weve had nothing like it before.
I was hoping for another view the following night but the convoy was breaking up as the satellites spread across the sky and to higher orbits. So taken was I with this that I stayed up until 2 a.m. for a second shot. Not as spectacular as the earlier one but I still saw a cluster of four.
Almost a week later, on Friday, May 31, while sitting with family on the sundeck, shortly after 10 o’clock at night, my son noticed a flare and called out “iridium flare.” We have seen numerous iridium satellite flares over the years. These flares or flashes are caused by sunlight reflecting off a particular antenna shape on these iridium satellites, of which there were originally 77, which happens to be the atomic number for the element iridium.
Shortly after, my son saw another flash. It is not out of the question to see two iridium flares in quick succession, but generally not in the same location. When he spotted a third I knew we were looking at remnants, or rather a pocket, of the Starlink “train.” I myself saw three more, including two together, all very bright, but only briefly visible.
Musk envisages a massive grid, or shell, of Starlink satellites, essentially able to blanket Earth’s surface with internet service, reaching places that may never have had any before.
With FCC approval in hand for several thousand satellites, and with pending requests to bring that total to 12,000, and subsequently to, can you believe it, 42,000, Musk’s Starlink has naturally faced criticism over space junk once the satellites are no longer operational. Two of the original complement of 62 satellites were specifically used to test an end-of-life de-orbit destruction plan. These two burned up in the atmosphere not long after the initial launch.
In late October Musk sent a tweet through the Starlink constellation, essentially confirming its viability of the project.
Key to the potential success of Starlink lies in not only the sheer number of satellites, but also in their low-Earth orbits, thereby keeping delays, or latencies, to values comparable to current cable and fibre services today.
Additional controversy over this project comes from professional astronomers because of the potential for light pollution of the night sky, should the project expands to its initial full complement of 12,000 satellites. Some of that controversy is misguided, based on the early observations of the initial 60-satellite “train.” Musk has indicated he will have his team reduce the albedo, essentially the reflectivity of the satellites, and that there will be the option of reorienting satellites for specific astronomical activities.
As Starlink deploys additional clusters of its satellites, there will likely be new opportunities to see the “trains.” Among the services where you will be able to track potential viewings, are these: n2yo.com, heavens-above.com, and calsky.com.
Musk isn’t stopping here. He believes Starlink will be highly profitable here on Earth, and he intends to use those profits to fund his Mars travel and colonization vision, and a consequent Starlink constellation orbiting the red planet.
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