Image (Credit): November 13, 2021 SpaceX launch of 53 Starlink satellites. (SpaceX)
“Quasi-civilian infrastructure may be a legitimate target for a retaliatory strike.”
-Statement to the United Nations by Russian senior foreign ministry official Konstantin Vorontsov in reference to attacking SpaceX’s Starlink satellites being used by the Ukrainian military as it pushes back the Russian invasion. In a Reuters article, “Russia’s Anti-satellite Threat Tests Laws of War in Space,” Iridium chief executive Matt Desch stated, “If somebody starts shooting satellites in space, I’d imagine it would quickly make space unusable.”
Image (Credit): Starlink page explaining why Starlink satellites are better then geostationary satellites. (SpaceX)
As if Elon Musk doesn’t have enough problems with his Twitter purchase and declining shares at Tesla, now the Ukranians are reporting that SpaceX’s Starlink internet service failed to work during a critical point in their battle to push the Russians out of Ukranian territory. This problem has been going on for weeks, but we are hearing about it now.
SpaceX was silent when these reports came out, but some suggested this may have been a feature rather than a bug in the Starlink system to prevent it from being used by Russians.
Mr. Musk later tweeted on this matter, stating:
Bad reporting by [The Financial Times]. This article falsely claims that Starlink terminals & service were paid for, when only a small percentage have been. This operation has cost SpaceX $80M & will exceed $100M by end of year. As for what’s happening on the battlefield, that’s classified.
Sadly, Mr. Musk did not clear the air but rather boasted about his company and attacked the media. But another media story from The Eurasian Times shed more light on the issue. The newspaper reports that Russia may be using its Tirada-2S satellite communications electronic jamming system to interrupt Starlink signals.
I would rather SpaceX is the cause of the problem rather than the Russians, but whatever it is we can only hope the Ukrainians, SpaceX, and Ukraine’s allies have a quick fix. Mr. Musk should received accolades for adding a novel asset to this war, yet his entire Starlink enterprise, and not just his donated equipment, is now at risk.
Update: Elon Musk is now asking the Pentagon to assume the costs of the Ukrainian Starlink program, expected to cost SpaceX about $100 million by the end of the year. Given the ongoing Twitter battle between Elon Musk and the Ukrainians related to Mr. Musk’s proposed peace plan for the region, the Ukrainians should probably be looking for another funding partner rather than continuing to count on the generosity of Mr. Musk.
Further Update: Elon Musk is now backing off on his attempts to seek more funding for Starlink, but as usual he is not very graceful about it. Here is his recent tweet:
The hell with it … even though Starlink is still losing money & other companies are getting billions of taxpayer $, we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free.
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the orbiting Sputnik 1. (thegravitywell.org/)
On this day in 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, humanity’s first artificial satellite, setting of a space race that continues to this day. The U.S. National Archives has a copy of minutes from an October 9 meeting between President Eisenhower and his advisors to discuss Sputnik I. The text accompanying the minutes demonstrates the shock this event caused:
At first, some in the Eisenhower administration downplayed the satellite as a “useless hunk of iron.” As David Halberstam wrote in The Fifties, “The success of Sputnik seemed to herald a kind of technological Pearl Harbor, which was exactly what Edward Teller said it was.” Others in America and around the world saw Sputnik as an ominous leap ahead in prestige and military ability, whether or not the new missiles could actually hit a target with nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower and some of his advisors, when they realized the significance of the Soviet achievement, met to discuss the alarming developments.
Of course, Russia is more of a wounded bear at the moment while China tries to take the lead in the latest space race. This is not to diminish what the Soviet Union accomplished in the last century, nor what Russia can accomplish tomorrow if it put its energy into science rather than war.
Image (Credit): Artist’s impression of NASA’s Orbiting Solar Observatory 7 circling the Earth. (NASA)
On this day in 1971, NASA launched the Orbiting Solar Observatory 7 satellite to study the Sun. It successfully completed its mission and remained in orbit through July 9, 1974.
According to a December 31, 1972 report by Ball Brothers Research Corporation, the goal of the Orbiting Solar Observatory program was to make observations and measurements contributing to:
Determination of details of the sun’s atmospheric structure, composition and physical state and the process of energy transport radially outward and inward;
Determination of origin, energy supply, and solar/terrestrial consequences of transient solar phenomena such as sun spots, flares, radio bursts, and particle bursts;
Prediction of transient solar events and their consequences by combining data with those from other spacecraft, rockets, balloons, and ground-based observations; and
Secondary objectives including study of the earth and celestial objects.
You can read more about the Orbiting Solar Observatory 7 mission here.
NASA launched eight successful Orbiting Solar Observatory missions in all, but the program had some problems along the way. One satellite launched in 1965 failed to reach orbit, with the satellite burning up in the atmosphere. In another case, a rocket motor test in 1964 went awry, killing three men and wounding eight others.
Previously, NASA’s Saturn-studying Cassini spacecraft had discovered Enceladus’ subsurface liquid water as well as the plumes of ice grains and water vapour that erupted from cracks in the moon’s icy surface.Analysis of the plumes had revealed that they contain almost all the basic requirements of life as we know it. But while the bioessential element phosphorus is yet to be identified directly, scientists have now found evidence of its availability in the ocean beneath the moon’s icy crust.
Maarten Schmidt, the Dutch-born American astronomer who explained the mysterious heavenly bodies known as quasars and in so doing helped create the modern picture of the universe, its structure and its history, died Sept. 17 at his home in Fresno, Calif. He was 92.
The space launch services giant was recently rejected for nearly $900 million dollars in rural connectivity funding from the Wireline Competition Bureau (a branch of the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC). SpaceX characterized that decision(opens in new tab) as “grossly unfair” in its Sept. 9 appeal to the regulator, which is under review.
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