Angular Momentum — SpaceX Starlink Deployment

Another perfect SpaceX launch tonight.

• 1st public view of the full deployment of 60 satellites, like a deck of cards rotating in space and separating each from its neighbors with simple angular momentum. From a simple stack to a string of pearls. Brilliant!

• 8th Starlink broadband satellite cluster launch (480 total so far). Should start service later this year.

• 5th successful return of a “flight-proven” booster by sea.

Each launch of 60 satellites adds 1Tbit/sec of bandwidth from above. Many more to come, connecting the next 4B people to the global economy. The recent availability of Ka and Ku-band phased array antennae (electrically steerable with no moving parts) makes it possible to dramatically reduce the cost of the satellites and ground terminals. The new architecture is competitive on price, latency and bandwidth with terrestrial alternatives, but affording global ubiquitous coverage from the onset.

This is another great example of a systems design innovation, simplifying the entire process of constellation deployment and separation. Normally, you have a lot of overhead for structures to hold and deploy the satellites in sequence. SpaceX tried something different — putting the entire upper stage into a slow roll and then tossing the whole stack out like a deck of cards. The array of moment forces spreads each satellite out from its neighbor. Here is a simulation in KSP.