Recently, SpaceX's "Starlink" satellite project suffered a setback in India. Since it did not obtain the relevant operating license, it was required by the Indian government to "refund all customer deposits".
The company's head in India, Sanjay Bhargava, is also understood to have left. "For personal reasons, I have resigned as CEO of Starlink India," Vargava said in a post, "and my last working day is December 31, 2021." ”
Balgava began working on Starlink India on October 1, 2021, when he announced that Starlink had booked more than 5,000 in India and was expected to ship 200,000 Starlink terminals in December 2022, with web services scheduled for April 2022.
In response to what the Indian government has said about the licensing issue, Bargava has also said, "We hope to apply for a business license on or before January 31, 2022 (unless there are some major obstacles." ”
SpaceX has emailed Indian customers that the booking deposit will be refunded. It also said that the timing of obtaining the operating license was unclear.
Here's a look at SpaceX's Starlink project.
According to SpaceX, the Starlink project "aims to provide high-speed Internet access to users around the world," especially in rural and remote areas where the cost of the internet is high or there is no internet.
Most satellite Internet services come from geosynchronous orbits about 35,000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, while Starlink satellites are in low orbit about 550 kilometers from Earth.
Figure | Starlink orbital altitude (Source: SpaceX)
Because Starlink satellites are in low-Earth orbit, network latency is much lower than satellites in geosynchronous orbit, which allows it to provide services such as online games that other satellite broadband systems would not normally be able to provide. In addition, it can also push the boundaries of traditional ground infrastructure and provide emergency services for people in situations such as disasters.
It is understood that SpaceX has launched nearly 2,000 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit. The most recent launch was on January 6, EST, when SpaceX successfully launched 49 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit using Falcon 9 rockets at the 39A launch site of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It is worth mentioning that the number of satellites that SpaceX will eventually launch is expected to reach 42,000.
Starlink satellites feature a dense flat panel design, so they are of less mass and volume, and feature a single solar array.
SpaceX also said that Starlink has automatic collision avoidance to avoid collisions with orbital debris or spacecraft. At the same time, it also has customized navigation sensors, optical space lasers, etc.
(Source: SpaceX)
In fact, the Starlink project also had some problems before the India project was frustrated.
On the one hand, because the number of Starlink satellites launched is so large, it is possible to create more space junk, thus threatening space security.
SpaceX, on the other hand, has been accused of using Starlink to preempt Earth's orbital resources.
At the same time, astronomers also said that the higher brightness of the Starlink satellite has affected astronomical observations on the ground.
In addition, the starlink satellite's autonomous collision avoidance function gives it the ability to constantly adjust its orbit, which also poses a threat to other spacecraft.
Most notably, China recently reported to the United Nations that the Tiangong space station had conducted an emergency evasion operation in July and October 2021 to avoid collisions with the Starlink satellite.
It is understood that at that time, the "Tiangong" space station was running stably in constant orbit, but the Starlink satellite was continuing to "change lanes". It's hard to imagine what impact the huge network of 42,000 satellites will have when the Starlink program is successfully completed.
Finally, let's talk a little bit about the reasons why the Starlink project has been frustrated in India.
Some analysts believe that one of the reasons comes from the market competition of another satellite operator, OneWeb.
And OneWeb has Indian companies behind it. According to OneWeb, "In 2020, OneWeb was acquired by the UK government and Indian mobile network operator Bharti Global. ”
It is reported that OneWeb currently has 394 satellites in Earth orbit. The most recent launch mission was on December 27, 2021, local time, when Arianespace was responsible for launching 36 satellites into low Earth orbit.
OneWeb plans to launch 648 satellites and is expected to complete the deployment of the first generation of systems by the end of 2022.
OneWeb's network supports air, land, sea, and space communications, serving fixed-wing, rotor, and unmanned aerial systems, as well as ground forces.
However, compared to SpaceX, OneWeb has a big disadvantage, that is, it does not have its own rocket system, it needs to rely on other companies for each launch of satellites, and the launch cost is also higher.
SpaceX, on the other hand, uses the Falcon 9, the world's first orbital-stage reusable rocket, which is developed in-house, to launch satellites into space cheaply and quickly.
Figure | Falcon 9 launch (Source: SpaceX)
At the same time, SpaceX is also developing a new generation of rockets, the Starship, which is designed to "transport crew and cargo in interstellar flight for a long time and help humans return to the moon and travel to Mars and beyond." ”
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reference:
https://spacenews.com/starlinks-head-of-india-resigns-as-spacex-refunds-preorders/
https://www.starlink.com/satellites
https://oneweb.net/investors