SpaceX

The US wants to build an unprecedented antimisile shield called “Golden Dome”. And Spacex has suitable technology

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The idea of ​​an antimile shield that protects the United States from enemy attacks is not even original. Already in the era reagan, The country fantasized with an initiative nicknamed “Star Wars” That never saw the light. Now, the Trump administration wants to dust off the project with technology of the 21st century and a more intimidating name: “Golden Dome” (the golden dome). With Spacex technology. A technological consortium headed by Spacex, the Aerospace Company of Elon Musk, leads the race to develop part of the Golden Dome, Publish Reuters. Its proposal consists of a constellation of between 400 and more than a thousand satellites dedicated to detecting enemy missiles, following its trajectory and determining if they suppose a threat to the territory of the United States. Other separate fleet of about 200 satellites (armed with missiles or lasers) would be responsible for intercepting missiles; Although the group led by Spacex would not be, according to Reuters, involved in the offensive part of the system. Old acquaintances. In addition to Spacex, two other technology companies are part of the initiative: Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries. Palantir is a government software co -founded by Alex Karp and Peter Thiel, old acquaintances of Musk. Anduril specializes in military drones and Autonomous Defense Technologies; Its most famous founder is Palmer Lukey, the creator of the Virtual Virtual Rift helmets. All of them, very aligned entrepreneurs and Donald Trump’s millionaire donors. If you liked, subscribe. The approach proposed by Spacex, Palantir and Anduril has an unorthodox turn for a defense contract for this magnitude: a subscription model. Instead buy and own satellite infrastructure, the Pentagon would pay a fee to access its services. This model, always according to reuters, could expedite the implementation by dodging the conventional procurement protocols of the Pentagon, but would also tie the government to a supplier and limit its control over the development and future prices of technology. After the publication of Reuters, which generated comments on possible conflicts of interest and worse things, Elon Musk responded in his X profile: “This is not true”, without giving more details. From Iron Dome to Golden Dome. The inspiration in the name seems clear: the Israeli iron dome. But the differences also appear in sight: Israel is a small country, with short -range threats. The United States is a continental country exposed to attacks from multiple vectors and with new threats, as the hypersonic missiles developed by Russia and Chinawhose erratic trajectories and extreme speed challenge current systems. Replicating the iron dome on an American scale is technical and economically unfeasible. Hence, the alternative that right now has more ballots is a solution based on the Starlink satellite constellation, which would cost between 6,000 and 10,000 million dollars. More politics than defense, for now. Although Spacex and its technological partners seem to be in the lead, traditional defense giants such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX or Boeing are not far behind and also bid on the part of the cake. The Pentagon has received proposals from more than 180 companies. The big question is whether Golden Dome will really be a defensive revolution against real threats (such as hypersonic weapons or orbital bombing systems) or If it’s just an electoral promise closer to the science fiction of Star Wars than to a pragmatic military strategy. If something has taught us the current administration is that nothing they are going to do tomorrow is predictable. Images | Peter Thiel and Elon Musk (PayPal), Starlink Stelas (Lowell) In Xataka | Space energy never worked. A military escalation in orbit is making it come true

12 years after making fun of Spacex and his idea of ​​landing rockets, Arianegroup is creating a European mini-falcon 9

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Year 2013. An Arianespace manager gives his opinion on Spacex in a symposium in Singapore. His statements still resonate in the European space industry as a summary of the 10 or 20 years lost that now, Arianegroup and the European New Space They are trying recover. “They will wake up.” The question was: how Arianespace will compete, the French company that has been launching all the rockets of Europe for 40 years, with the launch of 15 million dollars that Spacex promises. This was what Richard Bowles repliedDirector of Arianespace in Southeast Asia: “They are progressing incredibly well, but what I see in the market is that Spacex seems to be selling mainly a dream. We should all dream, but the releases of 5 million or 15 million dollars are a dream. And personally I think that reuse is a dream.” “I feel that the question is how I am going to answer a dream. And my answer to answer a dream is’ do not wake up people, they have to wake up on their own.” “They are not superhombres, whatever they can do, we can do it too.” The awakening. Breaking a spear in favor of Bowles, very few would have opted for Spacex in 2013, much less a corporation with the European launch monopoly. By nature, large companies have risk aversion and cannot maneuver with the agility of a startup. However, time gave Elon Musk reason. In 2024, Arianespace launched three rockets: A Ariane 6, A Vega and a Vega-C. Spacex, meanwhile, launched 132 Falcon 9 and two Falcon Heavy. He also beat the reuse record with 26 launches and landings for the first stage of a Falcon 9. Themis project. Arianegroup began to maneuver in 2019 at the request of the French space agency CNES. ARIANEWORKSa collaboration between the two entities, announced the development of a multipurpose rocket of low cost and reusable, known as theomis project. The project received 33 million euros of initial financing. Although the first jump test (a vertical flight of low altitude) was scheduled for 2023, It has been delaying. Themis will merge with another rocket that has ended up being more promising. A rocket called Maia. In 2022, Arianegroup founded Maiaspace, a subsidiary that, this time, would work as a startup. His Maia rocket, competition of Miura 5 of Pld Space and the Spectrum by Isar Aerospacecan put up to 500 kg in Heliosíncrona orbit in its reusable version. Its first stage is essentially the lake that, of methane and liquid oxygen, with the ability to land in a barge in the ocean shortly after taking off from the Space Center of the French Guiana. Skyhopper project. While Maiaspace continues with the disposable version of his rocket (he already has a first client, Exotrails satellites), A newly announced project will develop the necessary modifications so that the first stage of Maia can land. He Skyhopper project It will focus that the propeller can recover, restore and reuse within 12 months since its launch. The first stage could be used again at least five times. CNES has awarded a contract of at least 20 million euros to Maiaspace to lead this advance. The first landing is planned for 2028. Image | Maiaspace In Xataka | “Elon Musk can monopolize everything,” says Arianespace, who has been launching all Europe’s satellites for 40 years

Gwynne Shotwell, the chief of Spacex in the shadow of Elon Musk

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Gwynne Shotwell has appeared for the first time on the list of Forbes billionaires, with a fortune that the magazine estimates at 1.2 billion dollars. Billionaire The Spacex President It only has a 0.3% participation in the Aerospace Company of Elon Musk, but the company’s last investment round, which does not quote on the stock market, fired its valuation to 350,000 million dollarswhich has given a good push to Shotwell’s heritage. According to Forbes, Gwynne Shotwell’s fortune, 61, It is now 1.2 billion dollarshis first “billion” on the American short scale. As the data is not public, the figure is based on the compensation on actions received by the first Spacex employees. Faith jump. Shotwell joined Spacex in 2002 as employee number 11, changing a safe job in Microcosm for a company that had everything to demonstrate, at a time when Boeing and Lockheed Martin had no competition and Shotwell was divorcing with two young children. Mechanical training engineer, he told Musk “I’m a complete idiot” when he asked why he wanted to change a company established to Spacex. His first big challenge in the company was to sell to customers the Falcon 1 rocket and obtain permits for its launch. When the first three attempts failed, Shotwell had the difficult task of maintaining investors. Path. In 2007, Shotwell managed to convince Iridium, another consolidated company, to sign a contract with Spacex, despite the fact that at that time their rockets had not yet been successful. After three failures, Falcon 1 first reached orbit in 2008, which promoted a decisive contract with NASA to develop the Dragon ship, which would begin to transport load to the International Space Station. That same year, Musk amounted to Shotwell to President and Operations Director. Since then, Gwynne Shotwell has achieved key contracts with NASA, Pentagon and many commercial companies. Orchestra Director. In addition to the boss in Musk’s shadow, Shotwell is the only executive who has been working with the complicated entrepreneur for more than two decades. Musk is the visionary, but Shotwell contributes almost everything: stability, operational efficiency and diplomatic management. Shotwell has managed to accelerate the Rhythm of Development of Spacex, keeping in balance the many elements of a company that designs and manufactures its own rockets and satellites, and operates its own releases. There are no two spacex. In 2024, Spacex completed 134 orbital launches, almost triple that its closest competitor: the state company China Casc with 48 launches. Thanks to Starlink, Spacex puts in orbit 83% of all world’s satellitesself -confinction with its satellite Internet service the development of Starship, which will allow you to launch Starlink at an even greater pace. The constellation Starlink grew up to 7,000 satellitesreaching 5 million users (90% more than in 2023). Morgan Stanley estimates that Starlink generated 900 million dollars of operational benefit on revenues of 9.3 billion last year. Pragmatic and effective, Shotwell has been key in all these operations, an effort that now sees rewarded with his first “Billón”. Images | NASA, Spacex In Xataka | Who is Gwynne Shotwell, the shadow engineer who has taken Spacex and Elon Musk to space

After two catastrophic failures, we believed that Spacex would not risk with the next starship. We were wrong

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Starship’s next flight will be one of the most tense in the history of the rocket. Not only because the last two releases will end in paths explosions and with deviated airplanes to avoid the rain of rubble. Also because it will be the first time that Spacex reuse a rocket. Zero-Touch reflight. In addition to a 123 meters high mole, Starship is the first rocket designed to be quickly reusable. Spacex’s idea is that Starship takes off, lands and throws himself again after a few hours, as if it were a commercial plane. The company has partially advanced in this Objective of “Zero-Touch Desflight” or relaunch without intervention. The first stage of the rocket, the 33 -engines Super Heavy propeller, has landed in the arms of the launch tower three times: Booster 12 in flight test 5, Booster 14 in flight test 7 and Booster 15 in flight test 8. It was planned that the second stage of the rocket, the six -engines Starship ship, would make its first landing attempt during flight 9. To do this, the earth would orbit and re -enter the atmosphere until they perch on the arms of the second launch tower; Already finished in Starbase, Texas. However, the last two starship exploded at 8 minutes of takeoff For a defect in a redesign recent. A second -hand super heavy. The expected thing was that Spacex was taken calmly to flight 9 to compensate for the last failures, but the company has just announced a surprising decision. The next launch, scheduled for mid -April (if the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States is approved), will be done reusing the booster 14 of flight 7. This propeller first took off on January 16, 2025 and, after separating from the Starship ship, returned to the launch base to become the second Super Heavy that Spacex has captured with the arms of the Mechazilla tower. Of the 33 Raptor engines that you will wear during your second launch, 29 are already used engines. Another rocket that lands and takes off. The only orbital rocket with demonstrated capacity for propulsive landing is the Falcon 9 of Spacex. Specifically, its first stage, which usually lands in an autonomous barge in the ocean after throwing satellites or spacecraft. A few weeks later, you are ready to reuse (Generally, in Starlink missions). The second rocket to get it could be Starship, also from Spacex. Not in the “Zero-Touch reflight” mode, but after a restoration process and changing some engines, but it is a first step. And in fact, it is a step that nobody else has achieved apart from Spacex. The company that is closest is Blue Origin, who tried unsuccessfully on the opening flight of the New Glenn rocket. In China, Landspace is also achieved with his Zhuque 3 rocket. There will be no second capture. The bad news is that Spacex will not try to capture the Booster 14. The rocket, which has just passed some ignition tests on land, will merit in a controlled way in the Gulf of Mexico to test a more pronounced attack angle during the re -entry, which in the future will allow you to perform other flight profiles. Anyway, all eyes will be put in the Starship 35the third ship of the “Block 2” version. Its two predecessors exploded shortly after separating from the Super Heavy propeller, both for a flight of propellents due to excessive vibrations in the engines area. Starship 33 disintegrated after a fire and Starship 34 lost control after the explosion of an engine. The investigation of flight 8 is still open, so FAA has not yet given its authorization for flight 9. Even so, we should not take long to see it, taking into account that the rocket is almost ready and the renewed political power of Elon Musk It has already allowed accelerating the procedures in the previous releases. Image | Spacex In Xataka | Elon Musk has said that Mars will be part of the United States. It is an unusual affront to the outdoor space treaty

This Bitcoin millionaire paid Spacex to make the first space flight around the poles: he has achieved it

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The Fram2 mission images They do not disappoint. For the first time in history, there are humans flying over the earth from space in polar orbit. And not because a space agency such as NASA or ESA has financed it. It’s about A private mission of Spacex For a cryptocurrency customer. The first manned flight in polar orbit. The mission Fram2 He took off during the early morning of March 31 from Cabo Cañaveral, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The first stage of the rocket returned to the earth to land in a barge in the Atlantic Ocean. The second stage went south to place the Crew Dragon ship in a polar orbit. FRAM2 is the first manned space flight in history with a 90 degree inclination, which means that Its four crew They are the first people who fly over the north and south poles of the earth from space. A Bitcoin tycoon. None of the crew had gone to space before. The commander and patron of the mission is a Chinese millionaire of Maltese nationality called Chun Wang. Wang made fortune as founder of F2POOL, one of the biggest Bitcoin mining platforms that exist. Next to him travel Jannicke Mikkelsen, Norway Cinematographer, ship’s commander and responsible for documenting the mission. Rabea Rogge, expert in robotics and pilot of the mission. And Eric Philips, doctor and mission specialist, who brings his experience as a tanning explorer of the poles. 22 experiments. Even if they are financed by Wang, the four travelers will collaborate with Spacex and NASA with A series of experiments in flight. Among them, the first radiography taken in space and a mushroom culture in microgravity. In addition to a multitude of images of the polar caps taken through the dome, the Module with panoramic views of the Crew Dragon ship. But perhaps the most interesting happens on your return. When Americann, they will be in charge of opening the hatch and leaving the ship, without the help of Spacex rescue equipment, demonstrating this possibility for the first time. A new era. Chun Wang has become the Person number 722 In crossing the line of karm, the official “border” of the space. Characters such as the television presenter Jesús Callejaand will follow him shortly Katy Perry or Lauren SanchezJeff Bezos’s fiancee. Private spatial flights have come to stay and, when there is enough money at the table, the border between space tourism and space exploration is blurred. The Fram2 mission is the first one that flies in polar orbit, but the mission Polaris Dawn, financed by Millionaire Jared IsaacmanIt was the first private mission in which two people carried out an extravehicular activity. Images | Spacex In Xataka | Of the 719 people who have traveled to space, only one has done so without revealing their name. Now we know who it is

A huge blue spiral appeared in the sky of Europe at 9 at night. It was the wake of a spacex rocket

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It is hard to believe, but the last night were not aliens either. If you were looking at the sky at 20:55, European central time, you could see a bright blue spiral illuminating the night. It was a Spacex rocket. A strange show. In United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland either Ukraine. From The clean skies of Sierra Nevadain Granada. Virtually all of Europe has managed to capture the spiral light that crossed the sky last night. They soon appeared photos on social networks. People asked what that strange phenomenon was. It is not a usual show, although it has already been seen in Hawaii, Alaska either Iceland. A Falcon 9 of Spacex. Neither a missile, nor a satellite, nor a galaxy about to swallow us. Nor a UFO. The object had a name and surname because it was a Falcon 9 rocket of Spacex by recentrating in the earth’s atmosphere. He had taken off from Cabo Cañaveral, east of the United States, two hours before. The Spy Nrol-69 satellite of the American National Recognition Office (NRO) had put in orbit. And he was returning to the earth to disintegrate in the atmosphere in a controlled way. What caused the spiral. Before a controlled reentry, the 13.8 -meter length rocket rotates to get rid of the fuel that is still in its deposits; A process called passivity. The low temperatures instantly froze the propellants released by the rocket, which added to the turn movement and the position of the sun caused the light show over Europe. The turn is what made it look like a spiral, and the sunlight was what illuminated the frozen wake. Nothing to do with the incident of Poland. In February, the second stage of a Falcon 9 rented without control over Europe. Several pieces of the rocket fell into populated areas of Poland, without causing damage (except the dismissal of the president of the Polish Space Agencyfor its management of the incident). In this case, and as is usually the case, the second stage of Falcon 9 successfully turned on its engine to fall controlled in the atmosphere, far from populated areas. They were the light conditions and the flight profile that made its wake visible in the European night sky, without further consequences than the scare of some European spectators. Images | Jay in Kyiv, High Calar Observatory In Xataka | Elon Musk has revealed the plan after Starship explosions: v3 earlier than expected, but with half a capacity

Spacex will launch next week the first polar space flight in history. Your client: A Bitcoin tycoon

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Incredible things happen by mixing large heritage with the spacex’s launching ability. The First private extravehicular activity either The manned flight to the highest altitude from the Apolo program They were two great milestones of the Polaris Dawn mission. But the new Fram2 mission will achieve something that had never been done, not even by space agencies. Fram2 will be the First spatial flight manned in polar orbit. The first time a ship will take its occupants to fly over the polar caps. Commanded by Chun Wang, a Chinese-Maltés entrepreneur who made fortune with Bitcoin mining, the four crew will be the first humans who observe first-hand the north pole and the southern pole of the earth from space. The never seen To date, there has never been a space flight with astronauts in polar orbit. The highest inclination reached by a manned mission was 65 degrees and the Soviets achieved in 1963 with the Vostok 6. Spacex mission aspires to achieve a pure polar orbit of 90 degrees. To access a polar orbit, the ship must be launched north or south, passing on inhabited land regions. The fuel spending is greater and, in case of emergency during takeoff or re -entry, it will be more complicated to guarantee a safe landing and the rescue of the crew. The launch of the mission, aboard the Crew Dragon ‘Resilience’ ship of Spacex, is scheduled for Monday, March 31 at 23:30, local time of the 39A launch platform of the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida. Spacex will have to land the propeller of the Falcon 9 rocket in Bahamas For this mission. Who travels Fram2 mission crew The person behind the mission is Chun Wang, the co -founder tycoon of F2POOL, one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies that exist. Stake Fish has also founded, an Ethereum stake platform. They are very profitable businesses, taking into account that a flight on board Crew Dragon of Spacex costs about 200 million dollars. Wang was born in China. Acquired the nationality of Malta in 2023 With a gold passport. Vive Svalbard (Norway), but flies almost daily with the aim of visiting the 249 recognized countries and territories of the world. Next to him will fly a Norwegian cinematographer, a German scientist and an Australian doctor: Jannicke Mikkelsen: He will be responsible for documenting the mission. With experience in filming under extreme conditions, it has registered polar flights and other projects in remote locations. Rabea Rogge: Mission pilot, focused on polar robotics research for your doctorate in Norway. He has directed satellite missions and works with advanced technologies in the Arctic. Eric Philips: Doctor and specialist in the mission, contributing years of expeditions to both poles and the prestige of their participation in polar guidelines. The crew has received An intense eight -month training which included microgravity simulations, rescue techniques, first aid and coexistence tests in small spaces, including an experience in the Alaska desert to ensure its adaptation to extreme conditions. Three to five days FRAM2 crew with their space costumes The ship that will transport the four crew on this journey is the Crew Dragon “Resilience”, which has already flown in three missions: Crew-1, Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn. On this occasion it will be equipped with the Cupola module, a glass dome that will offer panoramic views of the poles. The Fram2 crew They will do scientific research on atmospheric phenomena and collaborate with Spacex in studies for future long -term space flights. The itinerary of three to five days includes 22 scientific experiments. Among them Spacexray, the first radiographs made to human beings in microgravity, and Study Egresss, with which they will evaluate their ability to perform maneuvers to get out of the ship after their removal and secure it without help from rescue equipment. Images | Spacex In Xataka | Polaris Dawn is a success: Spacex has just changed the rules of the game with the first commercial space walk

They are not going to fit the 60,000 satellites that plan Spacex and company

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More than 10,000 active satellites Orbit our planet. Two thirds are from the Starlink constellation Spacex, which has A team working 24/7 to prevent collisions against other satellites and large fragments of space garbage, of which there are at least 40,000. It is a known problem, but we did not expect it to get worse for climatic reasons. The effect of climate change on space garbage. Carbon dioxide emissions, responsible for global warming due to their greenhouse effect, cause the opposite effect on the upper atmosphere, cooling and shrinking the highest layers, which makes the atmosphere itself become less dense. This phenomenon favors the accumulation of space garbage. As? The upper atmosphere acts as a natural “cleaner” for space garbage. When the objects orbit near the earth, they touch the atmosphere, however light, slowly slowing down until they fall and burned. But, with a thinner atmosphere, this cleaning effect weakens significantly, which means that space garbage remains in orbit longer. The projections are scary. According to a study published in Nature SustainabilityIf we continue to generate greenhouse gas emissions without control, the atmosphere will become so thin that, by 2050, the ability to house satellites of the low terrestrial orbit orbit would be reduced by 27%. By the end of the century, the reduction would be between 50 and 66%. The study introduces the concept of “instant orbital capacity” to calculate how many satellites can operate simultaneously without generating uncontrolled growth of space garbage, emphasizing the cyclic variability of the sun: during the minimum solar, the atmosphere is further contract. The problem of constellations. The growing technological demand of the land orbit is dominated by Starlink, which will soon follow other Chinese, European and American constellations with their Plans to launch up to 60,000 satellites In the coming years. The low orbit (between 200 and 1,000 km of altitude) where most satellites operate could become unsustainable. In the worst stage, a single collision would cause A destructive waterfall Known as Kessler syndrome: a chain reaction in which each shock generates more fragments, exponentially multiplying the amount of space garbage and returning the practically useless earth orbit. What we are doing to avoid it. Beyond reducing emissions that aggravate this phenomenon with the energy transition, there are companies and space agencies Testing techniques to remove space trashlike the famous satellites capable of capturing old objects. But the most effective solution, which bets on the European space agency in its Strategy 2040is to stop adding trash through launching and design regulations of the strictest satellites. Jared Isaacman, nominated for NASA administrator, stressed in his X account the seriousness of the problem: “Even an aluminum fragment of millimeter size, traveling at orbital speed, can cause considerable damage,” wrote. For Isaacman, the solution is to immediately stop the creation of new space garbage and Avoid military conflicts in orbitthat could trigger the dreaded Kessler syndrome. Image | Max Alexander/Steve Kelly (ESA) In Xataka | Space garbage is such a real problem that Starlink satellites make thousands of evasion maneuvers every month

Astronauts launched by Boeing are returning to Earth nine months later, in a Spacex ship

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Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are returning to Earth after nine months at the International Space Station. It is not an unusually long stay for an astronaut (the Russians They have come to spend three times longer in orbit), but Wilmore and Williams originally rose for a test mission just over a week. What followed was one of the most controversial decisions that NASA has taken in recent years. Express rotation Although How Elon Musk and Donald Trump tell himNASA’s two astronauts have not been really abandoned. The Boeing Starliner ship, with which they went up to the ISS in June, returned empty to Earth for a failure in the propulsion system that caused NASA managers to lose confidence in a safe return for their astronauts. Wilmore and Williams were reassigned, first, to the CREW-8 mission of Spacex. If there had been an emergency in the ISS between August and September, they would have returned in that ship under the seats of the other four crew, without the right suit. In September, the CREW-9 mission reached the ISS with two empty seats and two costumes for both, which regularized its situation. Since then, Wilmore and Williams have had a firm return plan: as soon as the four relay astronauts (the Spacex Crew-10 mission), they would return to Earth together with their two companions of the CREW-9 mission. There were some delays for technical issues (the Crew Dragon ship initially assigned to the CREW-10 mission was not ready and had to be replaced), but political tensions ended up accelerating things. Crew-10 arrived at the ISS during the early hours of Monday. 24 hours later, in the early hours of Tuesday, the CREW-9 mission was decoupling to enter the atmosphere and return to the earth. Normally astronauts spend more time together to catch up on the details of the orbital station, but this time it has been an express rotation. The return flight Dressed in their Spacex costumes, very different from those of the Boeing Starliner ship with those who were thrown into space, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams said goodbye to their peers and entered the Crew Dragon ship with Nick Hague of NASA and Aleksandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos, the other two crew of the CREW-9 mission. At 5:05 UTC, the Spacex ship decoupled from the ISS autonomously and quickly moved away from the laboratory in orbit using its propellants. The Crew Dragon has been maneuvering to reduce its altitude. It is expected that Amerize near the Coast of Florida at 9:57 p.m. UTC, 17 hours after its departure. The most delicate maneuver will occur 12 minutes before shocking. The ship will detach from its trunk and turn on its engines to exorbitar. Then he will perform his atmospheric reentry, being surrounded by plasma by the speed at which he will cross the gases of the Earth’s atmosphere. When it reaches 5,500 meters of altitude, the two pilot parachutes will open to stop the ship, followed by four main parachutes to 1,950 meters to cushion the shocking. The Dragon ship will play the Atlantic Ocean at a speed of 7.6 meters per second, detaching from its parachutes and bringing back to Butch and Suni after nine months of scientific work and maintenance aboard the ISS. The soap opera will have finished. Images | POT In Xataka | “Stranded” astronauts in space say goodbye to the ISS with a script turn: supporting Elon Musk’s version

Spacex has launched 8,000 Starlink satellites in five years, but they are not enough. And we are beginning to understand why

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Starlink satellite Internet service is the golden egg chicken that is helping Finance the Starship program and other ambitious Spacex projects. But for it to work, Spacex cannot stop launching satellites. Starlink is a commercial success. Spacex announced Friday That Starlink had exceeded 5 million customers, two more than he had a year ago. The satellite Internet service is now available in 125 countries, and has also been integrated into more and more aircraft, ships and cruises. With the deployment of the first Direct To Cell constellation, satellites that in addition to the usual connections include cell connectivity, Starlink has also started working as a service for telephone operators. T-Mobile already offers in the United States The option of never running out of coverage. A sum and follows for the Golden Eggs of Spacex. Spacex numbers. According to a Payload reportSpacex invoiced $ 13,1 billion in 2024, 8,200 million of which came from Starlink. It is almost double what Starlink had entered the previous year. More difficult to calculate is how much it costs Spacex to put the satellites into orbit. We know that Starlink is a profitable businessbut we do not know the internal cost of launching a Falcon 9 rocket full of satellites. We know that it is much less than other rockets cost, because their first stage is able to land and take off at least 26 times; But not how much. We have, yes, a starting point. Elon Musk said a few years ago in an interview they aspired to A cost of 15 million dollars by launch. Taking into account that Spacex launched 134 Falcon 9 rockets last year, and that 96 were Starlink missions, at least 1,440 million dollars of Starlink’s revenues were used to cover the launch expenses of the satellites, to which the manufacturing costs, jobs, etc. The elephant in the room. In total, Spacex has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites, of which 6,000 are still active. The others no longer work or have burned in the atmosphere. Except for failure (such as the geomagnetic storm that caught a Starlink lot), satellites have a five -year -old useful life. The elephant in the room is that this useful life depends mainly on a physical appearance: satellites unfold in the low terrestrial orbit and reduce their height due to the effect of orbital decay, until disintegrating by friction with the atmosphere. Spacex cannot stop launching satellites. And you have to do it at an even greater pace to continue adding customers, while replenishing the satellites that are resenting. 100 reentrades in a month. Five years have passed since Spacex began to regularly launch Starlink satellites, and the effects are being noticed. According to an analysis by astrophysician Jonathan McDowell, At least one Starlink satellite He resents in the atmosphere every day, but January beat the record with 120 resentments. Many occur during the day, so they are not visible. Those that occur during the night are often a show of fleeting stars produced by the metals that vaporize In the atmosphere. The economic and environmental implications of all this are about to see, because Spacex is the only company that usually reuses its rockets and, therefore, the first to build a satellite constellation as large as Starlink. Perhaps the entry into Starship service changes the equation, but the order of the factors is clear: Starlink and the constellations that arrive later are condemned to eternally replenish the satellites that come out for those who enter. Image | Spacex, that In Xataka | Now any US smartphone can be connected for free to Starlink satellites. From July it will have a price

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