Elon Musk says Starship is SpaceX's 'top priority' from now on

Now that SpaceX has succeeded in sending two astronauts to the ISS via its Crew Dragon spacecraft, the teams can devote themselves body and soul to another major project, that of the Starship rocket, the new top priority for Elon Musk.

Don't count on SpaceX to draw attention back to Crew Dragon now that the first manned launch has been successfully completed.

The project will now proceed normally, launches will follow one another - Thomas Pesquet should join the ISS before the end of the year aboard this spacecraft - but the teams will be working hard on another titanic project: the Starship rocket.

SpaceX now gives priority to its Starship rocket

It is in an email from Elon Musk obtained by CNBC that we learn that all SpaceX employees must now treat Starship as "SpaceX's top priority project".

The CEO urges everyone to speed things up as much as possible. The only other acceptable concern currently in the company will be to "reduce the risks of Dragon's return". This has the merit of being clear, Elon Musk wants to shift up a gear on the design of this huge rocket.

Not to mention getting the Dragon Crew spacecraft into regular service

Starship is to become the main rocket of SpaceX. Not only will it have enough power for space tourism and long-distance travel, but it will also be a truly reusable rocket with very short time delays between missions, making space travel much more accessible. This rocket certainly represents the future of the company.

Unfortunately, the various failures around the project have clearly impacted its ambitions in more or less long term. If this email is true, it would obviously not mean that SpaceX will neglect its other projects.

The Crew Dragon capsule has indeed transported two astronauts to the International Space Station but it still needs to enter regular service. One thing is sure, the priority now is the Starship rocket.

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Starlink: Elon Musk's satellite network will be fast enough

     SpaceX's Starlink satellite broadband will have latency low enough to support competitive online gaming and will generally be fast enough that customers won't have to think about Internet speed, Elon Musk said at a conference yesterday.

     The Space X boss promises to offer low latency with its giant constellation. The service will be aimed primarily at rural areas.

Starlink: Elon Musk's Satellite Network Will be Fast Enough for Competitive Gaming

     Elon Musk said yesterday that the Internet access offered by his Starlink constellation will be characterized by its low latency of fewer than 20 milliseconds.

     This will allow users to participate in video game competitions.

     "It will be a pretty good experience because it'll be very low latency," Musk said in a Q&A session at the Satellite 2020 conference (see video). 

   
     "We're targeting latency below 20 milliseconds, so somebody could play a fast-response video game at a competitive level like that's the threshold for the latency."

     The latency of less than 20ms would make Starlink comparable to wired broadband service. When SpaceX first began talking about its satellite plans in late 2016, it said latency would be 25ms to 35ms. 

     But Musk has been predicting sub-20ms latency since at least May 2019, with the potential for sub-10ms latency sometime in the future.

No competition with telecoms operators

     This promise was made by the Space X boss at the Satellite 2020 conference taking place this week in Washington. 

     However, he said his service would be more suited to rural areas than to urban centers where there will be less bandwidth available.

     Elon Musk concludes that it will not compete with the big telecom operators. 

     He sees Starlink as a complementary way to connect the low-density US campaigns that are the most difficult to cover.

SpaceX could launch up to 30,000 Starlink satellites...

     Elon Musk's space company has completed a launch authorization document for an additional 30,000 satellites for its Starlink constellation. This could bring the mesh size to 42,000 satellites in low orbit.

    To be able to launch an additional 30,000 satellites, this is what SpaceX has asked the International Telecommunication Union, the competent authority in this area.

Elon Musk's space company, which had already received authorization in November 2018 to launch 12,000 satellites dedicated to covering the earth with an internet connection.

The Starlink project could thus have up to 42 000 satellites

     A strict condition: SpaceX is not obliged to launch all these satellites - there are however minimum launch rules - but sees broad scope for its network, whose goal is to provide a low-latency gigabit internet connection to all the populations of the planet.

     SpaceX has already launched the first 60 satellites into a low orbit of between 1150 and 1325 kilometers.

     The demand for the 30,000 new units is for an even lower orbit: between 328 and 580 kilometers.

     While the first launch authorization for the 12,000 satellites had already raised criticism, in particular, because of the impact this could have on the amount of space debris, it is likely that the alarm bell will be rung again for these new units.

     It must be said that the space agencies are already tearing their hair out with just under 9,000 satellites in orbit. So with 42,000 more...

Elon Musk says Starlink won’t ruin astronomy

     Musk addressed Starlink's potential impact on astronomy, as astronomers have complained about SpaceX satellites interfering with astronomical observations.

     "I am confident that we will not cause any impact whatsoever in astronomical discoveries. Zero. That's my prediction. We'll take corrective action if it's above zero," Musk said.

    That doesn't mean Starlink satellites aren't visible shortly after they're launched. Musk said:

     People get a little excited because when the satellites are first launched, they're tumbling a little bit so they're kind of like, they're gonna blink.

     And because they haven't stabilized, they're raising their orbits, they're lower than you'd expect, and they're kind of naturally going to reflect in ways that are not the case when they're on orbit.

     But now that the satellites are on orbit, I'd be impressed if somebody can actually tell me where all of them are.

     I have not met someone who can tell me where all of them are, not even one person, so it can't be that big of a deal.

World’s First Reflight of an Orbital Class Rocket | SES-10 Hosted Webcast

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