The US Air Force is providing SpaceX with $28.7 million for Starlink satellite experiments and for exploration of military applications.
The SpaceX Starlink satellites will enable faster global communication. The speed is with reduced latency. Someone around the world will be able to data up to 30 milliseconds faster. The data is faster and the time is shorter because light travels almost twice as fast in the vacuum of space compared to light in a glass fiber.
The Air Force just gave @SpaceX $28.7 million for Starlink experimentation. https://t.co/fr2bBHJkDN
— Eric Berger (@SciGuySpace) December 21, 2018
SpaceX seeks approval for Starlink internet tests on high-performance govt. planes https://t.co/FSUFgFXOQW
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 15, 2018
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The new Howard Hughes.
At least he is ‘our’ crony.
Nope. China and Russia have a lasers that can already take out sats. However, they supposedly can not take out many. Just a dozen or so. And with just starlink having 12,000 of them and some 5000 of them in much higher orbit, any attack on the constellation will lead to a VERY quick American response.
Well, damn. Now we have to hear for the next 20+ years how the US government paid for the development of Elon Musk’s $10 billion StarLink project with their $28.7 million award.
While they are indeed lower, they are still way, way, way too high for a ground-based laser and keep in mind that the satellite is only at its azimuth above said laser for a fraction of as second. At all other times, the amount of atmosphere between said laser and satellite is much greater.
DARPA Project Blackjack-Paul “Rusty” Thomas
Considering that satellites in LEO are about a hundred times closer than satellites in geosynch, I’d expect them to be a lot easier to hit with ground based lasers… At least while they’re passing over head.
As long is this a no strings attached … “please run these experiments within your defined designs” it is fine. It is not enough money to have them divert resources that result in even a weeks delay to accommodate AF given that Starlink is (way) behind schedule and Starlink revenue is on SpaceX’s critical path. Ultimately the DoD is a perfect customer for Starlink. It would enable a global-strike-high-speed-drone (don’t call it a pilot-less fighter) force with ultra-low latency comms.
The Military would love to have StarLink out there so the Chinese could not completely disrupt satellite communications by attacking the existing communications birds. There would simply be too many satellites for them to take out. And, since they are not geostationary, they would very hard to hit with ground based lasers.