2022 has just begun, and Musk and SpaceX can't wait to prepare for the first launch of the Year of the Tiger.
The launch is a Starlink satellite that will take off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 6, the exact number of satellites is not disclosed, but it is estimated to be 48 to 53.
This may be because the mass of the new generation of satellites V1.5 has increased to 277 kg, which is 17 kg heavier than the previous V1.0 and more than the 227 kg of the earlier V0.9, thus reducing the number of launches per launch.
The launched satellite will enter an orbital plane of 53.2 degrees to the equator, fly southeast along the Florida coast, and turn slightly right to bypass the Bahamas to avoid an accident that causes debris to fall into densely populated areas. After launch, the rocket will land on the unmanned ship Gravity Shortage.
A week later, Space X will also make another launch, sending dozens of small satellites from the United States and other countries into sun-synchronous orbit, the third "carpooling" launch service of Space X, this time the rocket will land on the land platform in Cape Canaveral.
SpaceX has launched 1,944 Satellites so far, and after Thursday's launch, the total number of Satellites SpaceX sending into space will be close to 2,000, nearly half of the 4,400 expected launches in the first phase, but only about a third of them are actually in orbit.
This is because Musk launched a lot of satellites and fell off a lot, some of which were deliberately de-orbited and burned, and some of which entered the atmosphere due to malfunction. According to astrophysicist and space activity tracking expert Jonathan McDowell, spaceX had only 1,468 satellites in orbit as of Jan. 3.
This means that 476 satellites have crashed, nearly a quarter of the Starlink network satellites have crashed, although the vast majority of them were voluntarily scrapped by Musk, but its unusually radical way of doing things is also evident.
Musk urgently needs the income of the Starlink Network to provide research and development funds for the Spark Star Ship, so the satellite design is not fully mature, or there are still some problems, it began to launch into space, and he proposed a concept to grab time, always while designing perfect, while building assembly lines, the product can be mass-produced soon after the radical concept is completely consistent. This is true of Tesla, as is the Falcon 9, as well as the Starlink Net and the Venus ship being built.
This very different way of doing things has won Musk a lot of time, and has also widened the distance between Space X and its competitors, and Bezos's Blue Origin is the most typical example. Blue Origin was even earlier than Space X, but followed the traditional rocket development process, resulting in the realization of reusable, but only to reach subspace, and the big thrust rocket used to compete with Musk is still far away.
When many people are still doubting the success of The Starlink Network, Musk may soon realize the first phase of the plan to launch 4400 satellites, and fully build the first generation of "Skynet", which will put other competitors at a very disadvantage. At present, the number of users of Starlink has exceeded 140,000, which can provide a download speed of about 100Mbps; and an Australian user recently installed the "pot lid" on the car, and even obtained a download speed of 200Mbps at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour.
At present, Musk's radical way of doing things is only his own use, and others have not yet been able to get its essence, is Musk really going to ride the dust and seek defeat alone? That's really worrying because Musk may have been at least five years ahead of other countries on reusable rockets. But the most terrible thing is not this gap, but that people have done it, and there are still people who "firmly believe" that he is using old technology, there is no future, StarLink network is also an old bottle of old wine, no 5G 6G speed. So the real gap is not the technology, but the mind.