How Do Starlink Satellites Navigate To Their Final Operational Orbits

When SpaceX deploy batches of Starlink satellites they drop them off in lower orbits and expect the satellites themselves to navigate towards their final operational orbits. This is quite a complex process and one that's worth discussing, the satellites need to be able to reach the target orbital plane, raise the orbit to operational altitude, and then finally maneuver to a specific slot within that plane before they become operational.
Satellite Orbital Maps by Celestrak
celestrak.com/
Starlink Map by Mike Puchol
starlink.sx/
Deployment plots by Elias Eccli
/ eliaseccli

[@Nar1117]

Scott, that graphic/animation you made for showing the sats rising into their respective orbital planes is BEAUTIFUL. Absolutely great work.

[@Bibibosh]

I agree with the top statement. I cannot however with the bottom comments.

[@Zacks.C-land]

Anyone know what the visualization software (or API) Scott might have used with python to make that? Looks like something fun to play around with.

[@willsherm98]

@@Zacks.C-land I am quite curious about this as well. Anyone know?

[@KeeeeenW]

Scott! Great and beautiful visualizations! Could you please share the source code if possible?

[@robloggia]

Frankly I'm far more interested in your script.

[@charlie262]

On many of the space KZbin channels I often get the feeling that the guy doesn’t know any more than me about rockets and space flight. Or worse less. On Scott’s videos I don’t get that feeling 🙂

[@awilliams1701]

If I recall he's an astronomer so yeah he tends to know his stuff.

[@benjaminlondon8308]

IIRC Scott got a degree in astronomy so he is definitely qualified to talk about it.

[@hooveyjones]

And an asteroid named after him 😎

[@Pixxelshim]

I suspect he is talented at researching topics and then synthesizing into understanding. And then crafting his presentation.

[@gajbooks]

@@Pixxelshim That is exactly what most "journalism" is lacking. In some cases, it makes sense to just report facts, but in some cases, the writers should take the opportunity to educate their readers/viewers, particularly on topics involving technology.

[@ThatGuy-sd3zl]

Considering the chaotic deployment of these satellites, each one should have a “fly safe” decal on them.

[@johnkotches8320]

@Lynn Geek It’s “chaotic” when you don’t understand what’s going on.

[@Jehty21]

@Lynn Geek did you miss the part at 3:10 "fly off like scattering a pack of cards around the room" , "satellites bumping each other" , " coming out at different speeds" Yeah, I would call that chaotic.

[@peterjf7723]

@Lynn Geek Once there are errors and they crash into eachother they will be chaotic.

[@ivanprock624]

@@peterjf7723 They're actually designed to be able to sustain some bumps, from each other, as they gradually disperse. So, yes, (slightly) chaotic.

[@devalapar7878]

@Lynn Geek No matter what! Starlink is just a very stupid idea! 1. It increases the risk of collision. And if a collision does occur, the likelihood that it will destroy other satellites is very high (due to the higher number of satellites). This could destroy many satellites. If something like this happens, we won't be able to use low earth orbit for decades (until the parts have fallen to earth). 2. What is he trying to do with Starlink? Internet connection? Has Elon ever calculated the distance from source to destination and back? It would be the slowest connection on the planet.

[@faustin289]

Imagine casually doing a script to simulate the orbits of Starlink satellites. For me, when i manage to patch together a script to rename files in my folder in bulk I celebrate. The contrast is staggering!

[@goodwinhull2751]

In case you're not aware, Scott's day job is software development. Anyway, keep learning - coding is fun 🤓

[@kindlin]

The key is asking the write question. Once you know what you need the computer to do, making it do that thing (depending on complexity) isn't that hard. I've always intuitively broken problems down this way, so when I found programming sometime in high school, it was like learning the language I always knew, but never knew I knew.

[@maf654321]

It’s not perfect but as someone watching this video and posting this comment from Starlink internet, the technology is already a wonder.

[@UNSCPILOT]

Compared to my overpriced, slow as sin unreliable rural Canada Internet, Starlink looks amazing for a reasonable price

[@inemanja]

Well, if it is not "perfect" it's not yet a wonder...

[@maf654321]

@@inemanja That’s silly. It occasionally disconnects looking for satellites, but 99.9% percent of the time I have ~25-30ms ping internet with speeds above 100 Mbps and uploads above 25 Mbps. That’s already vastly better than every other local fixed-link provider, let alone any other satellite internet company.

[@jbmurphy4]

@@UNSCPILOT it looks like starlink will only work below around 55 degrees north. So it won't cover large parts of rural Canada.

[@UNSCPILOT]

@@jbmurphy4 At least in BC we have a secret, 90% of us are with a couple hours drive of the US boarder, so more of us have access than you'd expect

[@linyenchin6773]

They used Krypton gas to form an anti-Superman perimeter around the Earth... yes, my joke is bad...

[@M167A1]

Wait I thought Bezos was Lex Luthor? Am I getting my supervillains mixed up again?

[@ristoreipas21]

There there.

[@slavisut]

Actually the exhaust gas moves so quickly it escapes earth's gravity well, possibly even Solar system

[@janniszimbalski6652]

@@slavisut So, we form a wide anti-Superman cloud around the solar system? Not concentrated enough to really harm him, but he might get a deadache or something?

[@mjproebstle]

i liked it

[@upslope8078]

The acquisition of Xenon is also an issue for some of the next-generation dark matter experiments. The 20 ton detectors would need about 5 months worth of worldwide Xenon production to fill the detector. There has been consideration of simply building a Xenon production plant in order to obtain all the Xenon needed for these detectors.

[@kodiak2fitty]

Produce? So they are using nuclear reactions? Or do you mean refining and extraction?

[@andersjjensen]

@@kodiak2fitty Xenon is so rare that it is probably easier to breed it with neutron/proton bombardment...

[@upslope8078]

@@kodiak2fitty It is generally obtained as a byproduct of liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen extraction from the atmosphere. As I understand it, not all liquified gas plants bother to extract it, so there's room to add Xenon production (production as in isolation, not generated via nuclear reactions) plants to existing liquified gas infrastructure.

[@devalapar7878]

@@andersjjensen lol? Do you know how expensive that is?

[@FredPlanatia]

20 ppm of atmosphere is Xenon, and 22% of that is of cometary origin (base on isotope abundances measured by ROSETTA and on Earth), BUT 90% of the expected Xenon in earth is unaccounted for. its used in car headlights, digital film projectors (xenon lamp), and plasma TV screens.

[@neogator26]

I love how we went from about 260 to about 280 electric propulsion spacecraft between 2010 and 2018. Then came this crazy guy with an idea to get the internet to everyone on Earth on the cheap and BAM! now we have almost 2000! lol

[@peterlyall2848]

Back 1969 there were only 4 communication Satellite's

[@ApacheSenzala]

500 dollar unit cost and 100 dollars a month is not cheap basically north americans and europeans can afford this but no one else can also he said he'd need thirty billion to run the network fat chance this will actually make money back without some massive government subsidy

[@Zacho5]

@@ApacheSenzala The US military has been doing tests with starlink. Could see that being a nice cut of money if they start using it.

[@ApacheSenzala]

@@Zacho5 so the military are going to pay for replacing the constellation every five years? I don't think so

[@MiguelRuiz-vp1hu]

@@ApacheSenzala They can do regional pricing since no matter what the satellite will be flying over certain countries. That would require for them to get the dish cost down which they are working on with the new gray dish etc. $30 bil is for investors over 10 years after it is generating profit they said $5bil for cash flow positive.

[@astronichols1900]

Writes his own script to draw the orbits. Still finds a use for industry standard engineering tools 5:08

[@gajbooks]

Honestly a scripted launch in RO would look better than 80% of typical launch graphics.

[@didyuknow]

more likely gets results that are far away from reality by lacking vital details.

[@parth5372]

ahh yes KSP - The Industry Standard

[@keithplymale2374]

I moved from an urban area where I had high speed, broad band cable to a rural area in September, 2017. Since then I have learned all about how snow, ice, rain, lightning and general atmosphere effects can degrade or block satellite down link. Plus the simple fact that if there is enough traffic the signal get laggey to the point of being like dial up which I'm old enough to remember. I continue to wonder how wonderful and amazing Starlink is going to handle all this.

[@barretprivateer8768]

It won't be. The most It'll create is a veil of destruction around the planet that prevents us from launching more rockets. Check out the Thunderfoot video on it.

[@tactileslut]

Thunderfoot's a spoilsport.

[@SkylineFinesse]

@@colinsouthern working in avionics, pretty cool. I remember seeing a video years back, discussing latency and how the military values lower latency, the video touched on the fact that if say a drone was being piloted, how a small delay in transmission can make the payload inaccurate. Maybe all theses satellites will enable a deep connection with military assets.

[@MoritzvonSchweinitz]

Geez. Imagine coming up with this whole scheme from scratch. Genius! The control software must be incredible, maintaining the constellation, filling in gaps, etc.

[@Spedley_2142]

I agree. I've always considered myself at least above average intelligence (50/50 I'm right about that :) ) but when I see what the top 0.1% can do I realise the gulf between myself and a genius.

[@119beaker]

@@Spedley_2142 Not necessarily. Everybody is good at something. You can probably do things that would have those people amazed as well.

[@Spedley_2142]

@@119beaker That's very nice of you but I'm not 8 years old!. :) I know I'm not in the top 1000 at anything ... except perhaps realising my limitations :)

[@Spedley_2142]

@@119beaker Ok, I take that back! Just watched the Elon Musk interview with Tim Dodd. I've worked in automation for about 8 years and I don't think Elon Musk isn't any better at it than I am.

[@MarkKrebs]

Elon didn't do this.

[@itsmebillo]

This is the clearest explanation I have seen about how the Starlink satellites work. Thank you!

[@izem.imrane]

hhhhhh

[@Chris.Davies]

You'll get a much truer picture by visiting the Common Sense Skeptic's debunking of Scamlink.

[@itsmebillo]

@@Chris.Davies Thanks I will check it out!

[@kamakaziozzie3038]

@@Chris.Davies Scamlink! Lol. hadn’t heard that one before

[@slickstretch6391]

In KSP I got 3 satellites to orbit equally spaced around Kerbin. I thought that was hard. Mad respect to the guys who organized all that.

[@kevman0111]

It is hard to overstate how valuable your videos are. Thank you.

[@burntpotatoes999]

Could you share that Python script used to generate the orbit lines? Would love to look at it

[@epicfailtackular]

this please

[@Kahitar1]

Exactly what I was thinking. These scripts would take me days/weeks to write. And I studied Aerospace Engineering and are working as a software developer lol

[@leonardofonseca1844]

I am more interested on how he wrote down the commands to collect all the data but maybe he just did it "by hand"

[@Kahitar1]

@@benadians1769 Oh I know, that's why I would love to take a look at the code. I think there could be much to learn for me in the code.

[@gregparrott]

While I would love to see the Python code, there's a huge difference between posting operationally correct code versus code that is both documented and commented sufficiently for someone else to properly use and understand it. This distinction becomes even more pronounced given that the math entails orbital mechanics, for which few coders (or mechanical engineers like myself) would have any knowledge. Kudos to Scott if he should take the time to post a documented/commented code. But I accept that may take more time than he can readily expend.

[@Slim-Pickens]

Welp, how Starlinks get to their positions was my only real question. So now I know everything. Thanks.

[@SkulShurtugalTCG]

No Starliner today, Starlink today.

[@RogerM88]

Yep...putting more trash into orbit.

[@ziggyinta]

Better then "out of sight out of mind" :)

[@RogerM88]

@@ziggyinta I'd agree with the abuse of Internet satellites in orbit, if it was possible, to a common mobile device use it without other external devices or antennas. Since it's not the case and the increase of the cover with fiber optic cables, 4G and 5G. Placing few satellites in a higher orbit as OneWeb, would make more economical sense in long term.

[@thePronto]

@@RogerM88 higher orbits, higher latency. Terrestrial infrastructure = high capital costs. Some parts of the planet can't generate a return on capital, so go without internet coverage. The Earth's surface is only 30% land. Hmmm.... what to do? I know...! Starlink.

[@RogerM88]

@@thePronto Nope...invest in more fiber optic cable, like most countries are doing. An enjoy the night sky.

[@etienneb2576]

It makes so much more sense to me now. Thank you Scott!

[@ScottMinns]

Thank you Mr Manley, I think your video answered almost all of my questions! Fly safe

[@thegodofhellfire]

Totally fascinating! Thanks for putting this video together Scott!

[@DRisThor]

I really appreciate you taking the time to put these crazy rocket scientist plans into laymen’s terms for us common fold to understand. This is fascinating.

[@scoremat]

Phenomenal presentation Thanks Scott Manley! 🚀

[@seiboldtadelbertsmiter3735]

Scott thank you for explaining this as always you have expanded my mind.

[@christopherappel5385]

Outstanding vid Scott. Many thanks.

[@richwaight]

Wow man! That felt like drinking from a fire hose!! 🤯🙌🙌

[@Kryptix84]

Awesome video! Patiently waiting for Florida to come online with Starlink, we get closer each day. Fly safe!

[@hooveyjones]

Great video as always! Fly safe Scott

[@greytrunk5905]

Hey Scott Manley, Mike Tronson here, just want to say I like the way your mind thinks. You seem to wonder about the same stuff as I do but are much more capable of achieving understanding, so thanks for thinking for us and for sharing what you conclude. Fly Safe!

[@CompleteAnimation]

Move aside, flat earth theory. Here, we believe in the F A T Earth Theory!

[@tannerwootan9086]

I like em thick ;)

[@NemoConsequentae]

33 downvotes. From the Flat Earthers, perhaps?

[@rynz_2893]

@@NemoConsequentae no, downvotes from the people that think every damn thing is bad and its all evil and out to get us. those people down voted this. they sit here and cynically watch these videos just to hate something amazing. hahaha

[@davesomeone4059]

Global bulging is real!

[@NemoConsequentae]

@@rynz_2893 Good point. Never underestimate the efforts some people will go to to excercise their _recreational outrage._

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

Scott... you make me feel lazy as I'm genuinely interested in the topics that you present and I'm pretty sure I could research and find out the information for myself. This video is a perfect example. I've always wondered how SpaceX "gets" the Starlink satellites to their proper orbit and voila... Scott's got a vid for that. Thank you sir.

[@sebastiaomendonca1477]

This video is so well put together. Scott Manley is usually top tier quality but this is exceptionally good

[@paulgemperlein626]

So much better and more thorough than any other explanation I've seen

[@davidm8030]

The satellite knows where it is by knowing where it isn't. Through a complex process of triangulation and inertial sensing it can detect all the places it isn't and can therefore detect where it is based on where it isn't

[@duncanx99]

The Sherlock Holmes method...

[@Wol747]

@@duncanx99 The dog that didn’t bark?

[@duncanx99]

@@Wol747 The Sign of Four, I think...

[@DavidOfWhitehills]

That sounds like a Douglas Adamsism.

[@duncanx99]

@@DavidOfWhitehills A Hitchiker's Guide To The Constellation

[@Nimelennar]

"Fat Earth Theory" GROAN

[@confuded]

I thought I heard flat... had to backtrack to hear it again

[@nunya___]

I've always believed the Earth was Fat. It's completely obvious.

[@jacksawild]

At school my bullies would call me an oblate spheroid. Those bullies were fricken nerds.

[@games1004]

@@jacksawild, calling someone an oblate spheroid has to be the most comical way of noting someone's exceptional girth. 😄

[@LordFalconsword]

Science is made of up theories. It's never settled.

[@kholdanstaalstorm6881]

Good compilation with intriguing commentary as always, thanks!

[@richardfraser1562]

I love the presentation style. No time wasted.

[@drkskwlkr]

A great video!! I'd always wondered how it worked, and more specifically how SpaceX would replace particular units when they expire. It seems to me a bit like turning into a faster lane on the highway when there's traffic - one has to look into their mirrors and use the accelerator carefully.

[@thedarksecrets-official]

The amount of engineering involves in spacex and tesla are mind-boggling..clearly the 2 best place to work right now

[@SuLokify]

It's great work to be doing, very satisfying being a part of this, but the pay tends to be less competitive and work/life balance is difficult. Long hours for low pay

[@thedarksecrets-official]

@@SuLokify better meaningful job than crappy high paying job...life is short

[@ebigunso]

Well that made a very complicated subject really easy to understand. Great job Scott!

[@MrRandomdancer]

Excellent video as always. The best explanation on starlink orbits I’ve seen.

[@watcherzero5256]

Theyve announced the Russian ISS accident was much worse than let on initially. Rather than 45 degrees off axis it was 540 degrees off axis when it stabilised after spinning 0.56 degrees a second and had to perform a 180 degree forward flip to return to its normal alignment. After 15 minutes of firing Nauka's thrusters failed, it wasnt a shutoff command or out of fuel they just stopped functioning.

[@scottmanley]

You haven't been following my videos? kzbin.info/www/bejne/mnWlpWyoj82AmJY

[@dominik9137]

What is happening? So basiclly the russians are telling the truth and admitting to their own mistakes and nasa/the americans are lying about that incident?!

[@thePronto]

@@dominik9137 absolutely... NASA are the bad guys. Roscosmos are blameless. Is that you, Kellyanne?

[@hjalfi]

It is true that SpaceX own the world's largest fleet of spaceships, right?

[@dpreston8831]

Duh…

[@dsauce8780]

Privately at this time probably. Lockheed/Northrop/Boeing are probably going to eat everyone’s lunch once the US military realizes how much it can spend in space.

[@CMVBrielman]

@@dpreston8831 Not sure. SpaceX has the largest fleet by virtue of not destroying them every time they launch one.

[@n1k0n_]

Maybe a superpower has micro-sats we know nothing about so... maybe?

[@friendlyroughai3319]

orbital defense platform

[@wdiermen1]

Another top video Scott! I learned something new today! 👍🏻

[@hughmnyks]

You do great job Scott!

[@temper44]

Scott, can you do an episode on the Starship manufacturing process? They seem to mirror the space race that the US and Soviets did back in the day, with rapid iteration and massive hardware focus. I've seen people say their approach is more Soviet than American in terms of prototyping. Any insight you have on the history would be interesting.

[@room_for_activities]

I'd also love to know all the similarities if they are there!

[@ralanham76]

Elon said that in everyday astronaut video

[@mattdill1219]

Sir: Would you consider adding your animations for satellite deployment and dispersal to Wallpaper Engine as a unique wallpaper/screensaver to use? Any added telemetry or “nerd info” would just be a perk, but I would use it for sure! Thanks for all you do and have taught!

[@BradBo1140]

That was a really good computer model you made. It brought the concept of launch and ultimate final placement in to a focus my brain can understand!

[@toonvanderpas7604]

This video made my day Scott, thanks, very interesting!

[@rdwatson]

I think that animation at 8:05 hypnotized me. Great video.

[@Spedley_2142]

That animation starts off great but just turns into an optical illusion as it progresses!

[@cuteshadow]

Its great that we have starlink, oneweb etc. But these animations alone give me Kessler-syndrome :(

[@BosonCollider]

Mostly the Starlink sats are too low down for that. Oneweb's satellites on the other hand are in the Sweet spot altitude to generate long-lived debris

[@Junyo]

Every day hundreds of time more cars drive in downtown New York than all satellites flying around the Earth today. Space isn't called that for nothing 😅

[@brandon3883]

@@Junyo ...and yet all it takes is one car rear-ending another in one of many "right locations" at one of many "right times" to cause a chain effect of rear-end collisions that partially or completely shuts down an important section of road. Your statement, although correct, does nothing to prevent me from wondering HTF this _isn't_ bringing us one step closer to a Kepler Syndrome situation of one sort or another.

[@roccov3614]

Nice animation and explanation. Really helps me understand how they manage their orbits.

[@RyanSmith-dy7fk]

Fascinating video, thx Scott

[@GlenHunt]

I'd love an episode on how the Earth's equatorial bulge is used or affects things in orbit from natural to artificial satellites.

[@GlenHunt]

YES! What he ^^^ said!

[@GlenHunt]

Awesome topic! Good thinking!

[@MrLogannator]

@@GlenHunt why are you replying to your own comment?

[@xenno8496]

@@MrLogannator(I think)he wanted to add the two together but had that weird error pop up everytime that says the edits couldn't be posted(this error is pretty common as far as I've seen at least on mobile)so instead he just replied to his own reply to link the two to each other

[@cudaman-yq7pq]

Looks like the Tholian web in Star Trek. :)

[@baconwithmusic93]

Been looking everywhere for this! Thank you 🚀

[@miracoli8540]

Great Scott!

[@janosvarga962]

It's MIB protective shield. Don't get fooled.

[@Gunni1972]

it is orbital landfilling. can't wait to hear NASA cry, "We can't start our stuff through that "shield".

[@foty8679]

@@Gunni1972 It would be such an irony if Musk ruined space travel for ever with a Kessler-Syndrom

[@QQ-ch7hp]

@@foty8679 you know orbits decay right? Or are you just a single chromie homie

[@foty8679]

@@QQ-ch7hp I know that they decay, but if you are aware of how orbits work, it can take decades. I am a big fan of Musk and SpaceX, and i dont think it will happen (at least not because of Musk), it was just a joke.

[@stormysrider]

How are these constellations of satellites going to impact future space missions? I realise space is big and satellites are small but it must be making it difficult to launch out of orbit through the “cloud”

[@thhseeking]

I was thinking the same. Once they expire, we'll have 1700 bits of space junk to contend with :( We'll become space xenophobes not from our attitude but because we can't get off the planet :(

[@Awrethien]

Not really you just adjust the orbit of the satellite or delay the launch by a second or two and the only one in the "danger zone" would be long gone. Not much different from trying to pull out of a parking lot onto a busy road in your car.

[@ValentineC137]

@@thhseeking the altitude of the satalites means that in the event one of them completely shuts down out of nowhere after seperation it'll only be weeks/months while satalites at operation altitude take about 5 years before it deorbits due to the atmospheric drag, and the plans for once they reach end-of-life is to deorbit them on purpose instead of leaving it up to chance. I'd be more worried about the oneweb and other higher altitude networks, there might not be as many of them, but if they go wrong it'll take a *whole lot* longer before it goes down

[@simongeard4824]

Not as much as you're probably imagining. The surface area of Earth is about half a billion square kilometres... so if the full Starlink constellation ends up being around 40k satellites, you're talking about an object about the size of a person, in the middle of twelve thousand square kilometres of empty space... which is about the size of a small country like Montenegro, or maybe Vanuatu. Does that still sound crowded? Things are a little bit more complicated than that in practice because they're all moving, but that's the kind of scale you should be thinking of... a single person in an area the size of a small country. And remember, there are more than seven *billion* people on the surface of the Earth, generally managing not to crash into each other most of the time.

[@Gunni1972]

@@simongeard4824 yeah, but they don't move at speeds greater than mach 1. you can easily miss a small country like montenegro or vanuatu at mach 23

[@jadams3427]

Brilliant presentation. I had wondered how they got to their working orbits. Thanks !

[@MarkKrebs]

Excellent talk!

[@TarisRedwing]

A video just in time for the booster roll out too!

[@nihongobenkyoshimasu3190]

I might be wrong, but I believe the Starlink sattelites are not yet connected by laser? If so, Scott, can you talk about this next step in another video.

[@justanotherperson2960]

Inter-satellite linking would be a great and relevant topic.

[@funnyitworkedlasttime6611]

They’ve thrown a handful of laser link sats into polar orbit on the transporter launches.

[@ronblack7870]

elon said all satelites launched in 2022 will have the laser links.

[@raymooney6770]

Very informative & very well explained and stitched together! Thanks for sharing ......

[@AirmanJH]

This was great! Thank you! I would also love to see the common practice for getting to a final geostationary orbit.

[@lllateralus]

seems as if all altitudes of space are getting very very crowded... soon any manned space flight will be dangerous.

[@KaizoeAzurum]

The Earth isn't fat, it's just big boned!

[@Gunni1972]

BBW: big , beautiful world.

[@adolphusweimann9237]

Flatshaming earth is wayciss

[@thomas.deliot]

This was extremely interesting and well imaged. Kudos !

[@mojitomaker]

Fantastic video Scott. Always good, but this was next level.

[@blameyourself4489]

The alien invasion failed because the aliens spaceships ran into some strange spacemines rotating around earth. Elon saved humanity!

[@michalfaraday8135]

All we needed was a suit of armor around the world :-)

[@trashpanda7859]

You should watch Enders Game. 😸

[@joshuacheung6518]

@@trashpanda7859 but the space mines aren't in that shitty movie. They have fighter based planet killers in that one.

[@CydoniaPhysGeekGirl]

@@michalfaraday8135 LMAO! 😄🤣

[@youcrackmeupdude]

Or...they use StarLink to coordinate their attack, and Will Smith saves humanity. 😜👽👾💥💯🎆

[@BoxdHound]

How are the ion engine "burns" timed to raise the orbits? Do they do successive firing at perigee or what?

[@agsystems8220]

Continual slow burns. Imagine burning prograde at perigee so long you actually pass apogee... multiple times. As long as you are burning prograde at all times you will increase the energy and hence height of the orbit, and if you are burning all the way round symmetry arguments suggest it should stay circular.

[@rocketkenOG]

Scott, outstanding work on this, thanks! Hats off to the Starlink orbital scientists who artfully manage these satellites! On using Krypton instead of Xenon for the thrusters, I'm told by my plasma physicist co-worker that ionized Xenon has an ozone-depleting issue at the lower altitudes. That may have been yet another consideration for the less efficient choice of Krypton gas.

[@danielburges8176]

Fascinating stuff, thank you!

[@truman42746]

Great video! It amazes me that they can figure all this out plus write software to make it work! I live in rural Mississippi and can't wait to get Starlink!

[@hagerty1952]

Once they're in the target orbit, how much station keeping can they do with the fuel on board? Is that the limiting factor for each satellite's life?

[@dr.jamesolack8504]

I guess we’ll never know…….

[@richardkellar9259]

Very cool Scott! I am QUITE sure that I don’t have the math to understand orbital mechanics….even rudimentary! I AM glad that SOME folks do! We live in rural East Texas and, are eagerly awaiting enough deployment to offer us reliable broadband. LOVE your channel and, my wife loves your accent! Keep it coming Sir!

[@dirkkruisheer]

Brilliant presentation

[@GLee-lk3rf]

1700 of them and theyre still giving us hell on astrophotography how many more are coming?

[@General12th]

"It would take a number beyond reckoning, thousands, to storm the keep!" "Tens of thousands." "But my lord, there is no such force!" *_camera pans to reveal a fleet of Starships_*

[@peterlyall2848]

Only going to be 42000 SL satellites in orbit around the Earth. 42 is the answer to everything

[@GLee-lk3rf]

@@peterlyall2848 cant complain with that then, the sacred texts have answered

[@chriswillms2669]

Do the clamps eventually burn up in the atmosphere? If so, how long does it take for reentry?

[@tteot1wph]

Without regular boosts, orbits will always decay. I doubt it takes that long for the clamps to reenter.

[@kellywu4061]

@@tteot1wph Especially considering their orbit is just around 300 km

[@Jimc4007]

@Scott Manley What they said ☝☝☝

[@paulhaynes8045]

They are intentionally designed to land in China, so the poor Chinese peasant who's house they destroy just assumes it's his own government raining space debris down on him...

[@normkirkland1999]

Good stuff, Scott. Thanks.

[@FLYGTRVIC]

Excellent explanation and visualisation, thanks!

[@rozzgrey801]

I'm seriously concerned that this form of deployment risks Kessler syndrome, and puzzled that no-one else is.

[@MagzGTV]

Becase the constellation was designed exceed NASA’s debris mitigation guidelines from the beginning, Basically the satellites at Starlink operational altitudes can not maintain their orbits without contant active management. If someone was to walk into SpaceX today and tell them to shut the network down, with active control cut the whole constellation would de-orbit in between 5 to 6 years.

[@MrHichammohsen1]

The fat earth theory needs an episode on its own.

[@scottmanley]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3SwhHespZKhbZY

[@MrHichammohsen1]

@@scottmanley Scott how long have you been flying safe?

[@FastUgly]

Excellent presentation thanks

[@jakebus5039]

Absolutely brilliant video! Really enjoyed it

[@JusNoBS420]

I world wide net of 🛰 with krypton inside them? Sounds like it doubles as a Evil Superman shield as well

[@TheChad138]

The way I understand it is that these satellites are like specs of sand.

[@JusNoBS420]

@@TheChad138 full of Krypton lol. It’s a joke bro. Does make you think about how in the near future there will be a multitude of space travel and satellites and “traffic” around our atmosphere

[@akajette]

lets talk about the impact on ground based observation and Kessler syndrome

[@ApacheSenzala]

this very much this

[@motokid6008]

You'll want to watch the first NasaSpaceFlight interview with Johnathan McDowell. Very, very informative.

[@akajette]

@@motokid6008 found it very interesting - thank you. Lets hope we get global regulation for this....sooner rather than later.

[@lucidmoses]

Nicely done.

[@kincaid05]

I love your videos man. Youre so down to earth

[@juantelle1]

The fact that there are so many starlink satellites makes me a little uncomfortable

[@F22onblockland]

Oh don't worry about Kessler Syndrome, governments and companies alike have foolproof plans and adequate funding to deal with such a possibility. Just kidding, they don't.

[@TarisRedwing]

just imagine how many radio waves and and cell signals are bouncing through you 24/7, Now you should feel uncomfortable lol

[@rawhide_kobayashi]

they only have enough fuel to stay in their intended operational orbits for ~5 years... even if they somehow completely lost control and had many collisions everything would deorbit in a timely manner.. and debris should have even less beneficial mass to drag ratios and deorbit even faster than the full satellite.

[@CapitalRoach]

Private industry has their teeth into Space, this is our future now. Everybody with a couple of bucks firing off satellites and filling the night sky with light pollution and debris just to make a couple more bucks. Inb4 miscrosat swarms space-writing adverts in letters 10 miles high.

[@General12th]

@@youngtschakaloff What are those catastrophic consequences?

[@acefox1]

How is SpaceX going to profitably maintain the StarLink network when they have to replace 1/4 or 1/5 of the constellation with likely a dozen or more dedicated Starlink launches every year?

[@TheEvilmooseofdoom]

Mass produce the sats.

[@Daneelro]

Not only that: if you do the math, they cannot earn all that money from subscribers while also maintaining the promised end-user minimum bandwidth.

[@trezapoioiuy]

When operational, Starship is expected to put many more satellites in orbit, for less money, and at higher starting orbit (= less time)

[@PaulLemars01]

It would not surprise me if Starlink has a large line item from the US government for 'rural communication' in the cashflow. It might be buried under R&D or through the department of agriculture or something. It certainly would not be through the US military under 'Hardened global secure communications and positioning service' or anything like that because Starlink is purely a civilian commercial venture isn't it.

[@MiguelRuiz-vp1hu]

It will be hard with falcon 9 especially if they scale the number of satellites to 4,000-8,000. Starlink will work if Starship is available since it can launch 400 sats at once and it is scheduled to be ready in 2022-2023 for LEO. They also have filed for satellite V2 a year ago with the FCC that has laser links and 2x-3x the bandwidth so 8,000-12,000 customers per satellite at 20:1 oversubscription ratio.

[@Pixxelshim]

Execellent analysis and visuals

[@dusankoszeghy7570]

Brilliant, thank You

[@NeonVisual]

0:11 What the sun will look like in about 400 million years.

[@araflohd]

So for short: they just yeet some metal cubes into space. Nice.

[@PrograError]

more like ikea table...

[@TheApc95uk]

Another cracking video, thanks Scott :)

[@12345maxx]

Beautiful animations!

[@tadem3886]

Wont these have an effect on ground based telescopes?

[@AchievementDenied]

Im not an astronomer, or someone who uses telescopes that often. But i do feel that they would skip past the veiwing window fast enough it wouldnt make much of a difference? I could be sorely wrong on that, but again, not an astronomer.

[@tommorriskutscher9084]

Yes it will, also radio astronomy will feel starlink. It's terrible for the astronomy community round the world

[@big.atom37]

Once somebody fs up, Kessler syndrome is gonna hit hard.

[@justanotherperson2960]

True. Though the deployment is ingenious, it's still chaotic. A slight nudge or push while deployment, is enough for a Boulevard of Broken Things. This would be an operational nightmare for CAM systems.

[@Zacho5]

Thats the nice thing, with how low they orbit and them looking at putting new ones even lower, they would deorbit fast. Like a few weeks to months fast. There not high enough to be up for a long time with out there thruster reboosting them.

[@big.atom37]

@@Zacho5 It takes roughly 10 years for an object to deorbit from ~500km and higher, and roughly 100 years for an object at ~700km and higher.

[@Zacho5]

@@big.atom37 They want/are to move them down to 300km though.

[@big.atom37]

@@Zacho5 You can't deorbit debris.

[@N1gel]

launch 60 satellites, send 20 to target orbit, have 40 orbit lower to gain procession, send up 20 more to next orbit, wait a while for remaining satellites to gain gravity assisted procession and then send them up to a 3rd orbit. Superbly explained. I often wondered why the satellites were launched and left to orbit for ages before anybody bothered to take control of them.

[@lachlanbird9688]

Thank you for the video .