Re: [Starlink] 69,000 Users

[Daniel AJ Sokolov <daniel@sokolov.eu.org>]

On 2021-06-30 at 5:00 p.m., David Lang wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Jun 2021, Daniel AJ Sokolov wrote:
> 
>> OK. But does it help Starlink if 3 satellites in a train of 10 run an 
>> extra year, and 3 more an extra half year? Can they reasonably 
>> "refill" the train satellite by satellite?
> 
> so far they have launched between 3 and 60 satellites per launch, not 
> always 60. And if they start using starship to launch (which they plan 
> to as quickly as they can), a single launch can be up to 400 satellites

Yes, that's exactly it. The lower their launch costs, the more it may 
make sense to deorbit and replace entire trains rather than individual 
satellites within trains.

If that is the case, it doesn't help much that the average life span is 
a bit more than 5 years. When a train of satellite starts to degrade, 
they may just deorbit the entire train, even if some of the satellites 
in the train could still operate for a while.

Or am I getting that wrong?

BR
Daniel AJ