Starlink v1.0 12-1/60

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Description:

• Starlink is SpaceX′s 4425-satellites low earth orbit constellation to provide broadband Internet access.
• The mass-produced spacecraft carry a communications payload using the Ku and Ka frequency bands. The satellites will employ optical inter-satellite links and phased array beam forming and digital processing technologies.
• The Starlink satellites feature a flat panel design with a single solar panel and have a mass of about 227 kg. The satellites are stacked for launch without the need for an dispenser. As a propulsion system for orbit adjustion and maintenance as well as deorbiting, they use krypton-fueled Hall thrusters. The Startracker navigation system is based on the heritage of Dragon. The satellites are designed autonomously avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data. At the end of life, the Starlink satellites are to be actively deorbited, leading to reentry. 95% of the material is expected to burn up.
• The first 1584 Starlink satellites are to operate from a 550 km orbit. Later sub-constellations are planned for 1200 km and very low 340 km orbital altitude, bringing the final constellation size to nearly 12000 satellites.
• The initial 75 satellites, called Block v0.9, are prototypes without inter-satellite links and Ka-band antennas. These are to be used for extensive testing of deployment and operation and also of deliberate deorbiting.
• For launch, 60 satellites are stacked on top of each other without the need of a massive deployer. 60 satellite is the maximum possible to fit inside the Falcon-9 v1.2 (Block 5), although a future enlarged fairing will allow launches of more than 60 satellites per mission.

Mission details:

• The 13th Starlink launch (the 12th of the V1.0 series) took off from KSC on Oct 6, 2020 deploying another 60 satellites. The Falcon 9 first stage (B1058, on its third mission) landed on the droneship Of Course I Still Love You. The second stage was deorbited southwest of Australia.
• As of Oct 7, 775 Starlinks have been launched and 728 remain in orbit.

External links:

• SPACE-X: Satellite Information
• SPACE-X: Starlink mission
• Wikipedia: Starlink mission
• Satellite tracking (n2ya.com): Real time satellite tracking