SpaceX F9 : Starlink v1.0 Flight 2 : January 6/7, 2020 : Discussion

[su27k]

https://twitter.com/TSKelso/status/1214562257889136645

Latest @SpaceX ephemerides are available for 57 of the 60 latest #Starlink satellites, including STARLINK-1130 (DARKSAT): https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?tleFile=starlink&title=Starlink&orbits=0&pointsPerRev=90&frame=1

Just in case someone mistaken this to mean 3 out of 60 didn't work, the celestrak page now has data for all 60 Starlink satellites, just to go the link in the tweet and search for "2020-001".

[ThomasGadd]

https://twitter.com/TSKelso/status/1214562257889136645

Latest @SpaceX ephemerides are available for 57 of the 60 latest #Starlink satellites, including STARLINK-1130 (DARKSAT): https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?tleFile=starlink&title=Starlink&orbits=0&pointsPerRev=90&frame=1

Just in case someone mistaken this to mean 3 out of 60 didn't work, the celestrak page now has data for all 60 Starlink satellites, just to go the link in the tweet and search for "2020-001".

2020-001BM     71144   STARLINK-1144   90.40   53.00   295   294   0.0001000   N/A   0.20
2019-029A     44235   STARLINK-31    95.23   53.00   531   529   0.0001459       0.21

This data is prelaunch, supplemental info, I don't think SpaceX reported the actual positions yet. 

[envy887]

https://twitter.com/TSKelso/status/1214562257889136645

Latest @SpaceX ephemerides are available for 57 of the 60 latest #Starlink satellites, including STARLINK-1130 (DARKSAT): https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?tleFile=starlink&title=Starlink&orbits=0&pointsPerRev=90&frame=1

Just in case someone mistaken this to mean 3 out of 60 didn't work, the celestrak page now has data for all 60 Starlink satellites, just to go the link in the tweet and search for "2020-001".

2020-001BM     71144   STARLINK-1144   90.40   53.00   295   294   0.0001000   N/A   0.20
2019-029A     44235   STARLINK-31    95.23   53.00   531   529   0.0001459       0.21

This data is prelaunch, supplemental info, I don't think SpaceX reported the actual positions yet.

Celestrak has TLEs for 2020-001, which is the lateest Starlink launch, that are 0.24 days (6 hours) old. Those would appear to be from SpaceX.

https://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/supplemental/table.php?tleFile=starlink&title=Starlink&orbits=0&pointsPerRev=90&frame=1

[sferrin]

Anybody know what happened to the fairing half they were trying to catch?  I thought they were going to try to catch one and fish the other out of the water.  I saw the comment about a parafoil hanging from one of the arms but wouldn't they still try to fish the second one out of the water if they missed catching it? 

[ZChris13]

Anybody know what happened to the fairing half they were trying to catch?  I thought they were going to try to catch one and fish the other out of the water.  I saw the comment about a parafoil hanging from one of the arms but wouldn't they still try to fish the second one out of the water if they missed catching it? 

It may have hit the water too hard but there's no way to know unless SpaceX release something.

[AndrewRG10]

Anybody know what happened to the fairing half they were trying to catch?  I thought they were going to try to catch one and fish the other out of the water.  I saw the comment about a parafoil hanging from one of the arms but wouldn't they still try to fish the second one out of the water if they missed catching it? 

It may have hit the water too hard but there's no way to know unless SpaceX release something.

Seeing the parachute was in the net and based on what we see from other landings. The parachute hit the net, the parachute dropped the fairing and it hit the boat and water hard and was destroyed. They likely then just left it to be destroyed from the  waves.

[Vettedrmr]

Seeing the parachute was in the net ...

I have utterly failed in finding any photos of the latest attempt.  Any links to the chute in the net?

TIA, and have a good one,
Mike

[Draggendrop]

Seeing the parachute was in the net ...

I have utterly failed in finding any photos of the latest attempt.  Any links to the chute in the net?

TIA, and have a good one,
Mike

There is am image here..shows a bit...

https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=45083.476

edit...image at bottom of page in thread.

[StuffOfInterest]

Have the satellites spread out enough yet for the darksat to be individually identified?  Would be interesting to know how much the reflection is being cut down.  Of course, the real result won't be known until it reaches final altitude.

[Hummy]

Have the satellites spread out enough yet for the darksat to be individually identified?  Would be interesting to know how much the reflection is being cut down.  Of course, the real result won't be known until it reaches final altitude.

They spread out in 1-2 days after the launch. STARLINK-1130 aka DarkSat is the fifth in the second sparse train of 20 satellites following a dense train of 39.

[Hummy]

Confirmation from @SpaceX: During the early mission phase we are in a low-drag configuration in which the back of the solar array will contribute to the brightness of the satellite. Because the surface area of the solar array is so much larger than the chassis, we expect the impact from the experimental coating to be less noticeable during this period. We are not using a special orientation for the darkened satellite.

That's an indirect response to "This evening I got my first view of #DarkSat, the @SpaceX #Starlink satellite with a special coating to make it less bright in the night sky. The combined image below shows that #DarkSat is not much fainter than some of the other #Starlink satellites... What is going on here?"

Check the whole thread out, it includes a DarkSat observation: https://twitter.com/TSKelso/status/1217922807826386945

[StuffOfInterest]

I have several threads for Starlink that keep hovering near the top of the list because of tracking updates.  Instead of having these tracking updates spread across multiple threads, which is going to continue to multiply throughout the year, would it make sense to have a single tracking thread for all of Starlink?  That would let the individual launch threads go quiet and avoid having two dozen of the update threads sitting on top of the missions page.  I'm not sure if the combined thread belongs in "missions" or "general", but I feel like having it spreads across potentially dozens of threads is not going to work long term.

[Vettedrmr]

...would it make sense to have a single tracking thread for all of Starlink? 

That would be great.  I'd go a step further and once satellites were successfully moving into their orbits drop them off the list as well.  That way only those with degrading orbits or similar issues would be documented.  Otherwise we're going to be monitoring dozens of satellites in transition.

Have a good one,
Mike

[StuffOfInterest]

The main launch manifest thread has a table of recent and future launches.  Would it make sense for a Starlink tracking thread to maintain a list of satellites showing details like launch date, status, and plane (if we can come up with a numbering scheme)?  The list would get rather long once this year's slate of launches are complete but it might give a good overview of the constellation.

[gongora]

I have several threads for Starlink that keep hovering near the top of the list because of tracking updates.  Instead of having these tracking updates spread across multiple threads, which is going to continue to multiply throughout the year, would it make sense to have a single tracking thread for all of Starlink?  That would let the individual launch threads go quiet and avoid having two dozen of the update threads sitting on top of the missions page.  I'm not sure if the combined thread belongs in "missions" or "general", but I feel like having it spreads across potentially dozens of threads is not going to work long term.

I had been thinking about creating a thread like that and just hadn't gotten around to doing it.  I'll make some new Starlink threads later today.  They'll probably start out as empty threads and I might then go back and add earlier posts at the beginning of them.

[gongora]

The main launch manifest thread has a table of recent and future launches.  Would it make sense for a Starlink tracking thread to maintain a list of satellites showing details like launch date, status, and plane (if we can come up with a numbering scheme)?  The list would get rather long once once this years slate of launches are complete but it might give a good overview of the constellation.

That's just not going to work as a forum post.

[Comga]

All this discussion of threads is getting “meta”
My suggestion, before these posts all get moved or deleted, is a separate section for Starlink.
We can keep the launches and first stages in Missions and General, but once on orbit, all discussion and observations could shift to that dedicated section, along with all discussion of Starlink in general, like the structure of the constellation, interference with astronomy, pricing, etc.
This is no longer in the vein of our initial interests in a specific launch.