Enlarge (credit: Trevor Mahlmann) The head of the European Space Agency has urged the continent’s leaders to stop facilitating Elon Musk’s ambition to dominate the new space economy, warning that the lack of co-ordinated action meant the US billionaire was “making the rules” himself. Josef Aschbacher, the new director-general of ESA, said that Europe’s readiness […]
Enlarge / The first test firing of a flight version of SpaceX’s Raptor rocket engine. (credit: Elon Musk/Twitter) Last Friday, as most Americans slept off their tryptophan hangovers, headed to the mall for Black Friday shopping, or tried in vain to avoid political discussions with visiting family members, SpaceX founder Elon Musk was instead at […]
Enlarge / SpaceX launches its 25th mission on Saturday, lifting above the particular fog. (credit: SpaceX) By most measures, the Saturday morning launch of a previously flown Falcon 9 rocket seemed fairly pedestrian. After all, SpaceX had already launched 24 rockets this year, so adding one more Starlink satellite mission on top was no big […]
Enlarge / The new version of Dishy McFlatface. (credit: Starlink) Starlink has replaced its user terminal with a new model that’s smaller and cheaper to produce, and the company updated the Wi-Fi router that ships in hardware kits sent to new subscribers. The $499 price that new Starlink users must pay for hardware is unchanged. […]
Enlarge (credit: Starlink ) Starlink has provided an encouraging update for preorderers who unexpectedly had their estimated delivery dates delayed to 2022 or 2023, but the Starlink website is still displaying delayed shipping dates to people who were previously told to expect service in 2021. As we reported Tuesday , some people who preordered Starlink […]
Enlarge / Starlink satellite dish. (credit: Starlink) Some people who preordered Starlink broadband say they made tiny changes to their service locations on the Starlink website and immediately had their delivery dates delayed by a year or more. This isn’t a case of changing an address from one city to another; people say that using […]
Enlarge / A Starlink satellite dish’s printed circuit board. (credit: Ken Keiter ) If you ordered Starlink broadband service and don’t receive your ” Dishy McFlatface ” satellite dish any time soon, the global chip shortage may be one reason why. “Silicon shortages have delayed production which has impacted our ability to fulfill orders. Please […]
Enlarge / SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 60 Starlink satellites launches from the Kennedy Space Center on October 6, 2020, in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (credit: Getty Images | NurPhoto ) Signals from SpaceX Starlink broadband satellites can be used to pinpoint locations on Earth to within eight meters of accuracy, engineering researchers reported in a […]
Enlarge / Amazon UK warehouse at Leeds Distribution Park on May 27, 2021, in Leeds, England. (credit: Getty Images | Nathan Stirk ) On Thursday, SpaceX called Amazon’s latest protest against Starlink plans an irrelevant “diatribe” that should be ignored by the Federal Communications Commission. “Another week, another objection from Amazon against a competitor, yet […]
Enlarge / Artist’s impression of low Earth-orbit satellites like those launched by SpaceX and OneWeb. (credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld ) In the ongoing battle between the two companies, Amazon . com fired back at SpaceX today at the Federal Communications Commission, claiming that the Starlink operator refuses to obey the rules […]