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SpaceX’s Starlink space internet gets new competitor with OneWeb satellite launch

A Soyuz 2 rocket lifts off with OneWeb's first six satellites on February 27th. (Arianespace)

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6 years ago

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The most viable competitor to SpaceX’s Starlink Internet constellation has completed a demonstration launch, placing the first six OneWeb satellites in a circular orbit 1000 km (620 mi) above Earth.

Designed as a constellation of approximately 650-900 satellites, OneWeb aims to provide uninterrupted Internet access across the world with a focus on affordability for those living without a basic communications infrastructure. Assuming OneWeb’s first six spacecraft operate nominally in orbit, the first phase of the company’s constellation could be completed by late 2020 or early 2021, leading to initial operations with customers actually able to access the internet through their spacecraft.

Compared to OneWeb, SpaceX’s Starlink constellation (even in its earliest phases) is dramatically more expansive, featuring anywhere from 2-7x as many spacecraft and an overall bandwidth that is likely even greater still. As a partial consequence, Starlink spacecraft will likely be more complex and expensive to mass-produce and operate. Combined with optical (laser) interlinks that could make Starlink truly revolutionary, it remains to be seen whether the costs of high-tech solutions can be outweighed by their intrinsic benefits.

Thanks to the relative simplicity and lower mass of OneWeb’s spacecraft, as well as a partnership with industry heavyweight Airbus Defence and Space and the partial completion of a Florida-based satellite factory, OneWeb undeniably has several steps up on SpaceX, at least with respect to the goal of reaching initial commercial operations as quickly as possible. SpaceX has already gained experience operating its first two demonstration satellites – known as Tintin A and B – for a full year on-orbit, but all that is known Starlink’s first operational launches is that CEO Elon Musk is dead-set on commencing deployment no later than June 2019. Meanwhile, the status of SpaceX’s production facilities is unclear, with two mid-sized buildings in Redmond, Washington known to be dedicated to the program.

An array of job posts and brief hints from primary and secondary sources indicate that the Starlink program is already heavily focused on ramping up spacecraft production after several years of development. It’s unclear if a planned second set of prototype satellites is still on the books, hinted at by Musk in the months after the first pair’s February 2018 launch debut.

 

Aside from the satellites themselves, prospective global internet constellation operators must face the equally critical and challenging task of developing a simultaneously high-performance and low-cost user terminal, the antenna and associated electronics that turn spacecraft signals into an accessible and reliable internet connection. SpaceX’s work in this direction has been silent, while OneWeb founder Greg Wyler recently began teasing and describing the company’s own work in that direction, hinting that his team has already arrived at a $15 antenna prototype capable of supporting 20-60 Mbps (megabits per second).

Meanwhile, the hopeful success of the company’s first launch will pave the way for the first full launch of OneWeb spacecraft, potentially as many as 32-36 at once on Arianespace’s Russian Soyuz 2 launch vehicle. OneWeb has 21 launches manifested on Soyuz 2 rockets, scheduled to occur at a more or less monthly cadence between the first operational launch and the completion of Phase 1’s 650-satellite constellation. Shortly after the first launch was completed, Arianespace CEO Stéphane Israël announced that it had struck a deal with OneWeb as the official customer for the first two launches of its Ariane 6 rocket, meant to debut as early as 2020.

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Eric Ralph is Teslarati's senior spaceflight reporter and has been covering the industry in some capacity for almost half a decade, largely spurred in 2016 by a trip to Mexico to watch Elon Musk reveal SpaceX's plans for Mars in person. Aside from spreading interest and excitement about spaceflight far and wide, his primary goal is to cover humanity's ongoing efforts to expand beyond Earth to the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere.

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SpaceX and Elon Musk explain potential reasons for Starship loss

Published

2 months ago

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January 17, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX and its CEO Elon Musk are starting to shed some light on the potential reasoning for the loss of Starship yesterday, which was lost after a successful launch and catch of the lower-stage booster.

Starship was lost during its ascension, and debris rained down over the Caribbean less than an hour after SpaceX lost all communication with the spacecraft.

A few hours after the launch was over, SpaceX started to shed some light after looking at preliminary data that the rocket left behind.

The company said that a fire developed in the aft section of Starship:

“Following stage separation, the Starship upper stage successfully lit all six Raptor engines and performed its ascent burn to space. Prior to the burn’s completion, telemetry was lost with the vehicle after approximately eight and a half minutes of flight. Initial data indicates a fire developed in the aft section of the ship, leading to a rapid unscheduled disassembly with debris falling into the Atlantic Ocean within the predefined hazard areas.”

Additionally, Musk said that there was some sort of oxygen or fuel leak in the cavity above the ship engine firewall.

The leak was evidently large enough to build more pressure than the vent was able to handle:

Some also seemed to recognize evidence of fires throughout the flight of Starship, which is obviously an anomaly:

There will be more information regarding the loss of Starship in the coming days and weeks, but Musk already believes that a bit of fire suppression and more volume in the cavity above the ship engine firewall could fix the issue.

“Nothing so far suggests pushing next launch past next month,” he said, so Flight 8 could happen sometime in February.

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SpaceX completes second catch of lower stage, but loses Starship

Published

2 months ago

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January 16, 2025

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Credit: SpaceX

SpaceX completed its seventh launch of Starship on Thursday, accomplishing a clean liftoff and catch of the first-stage booster. However, the upper stage was lost after its ascent.

The launch took place just a few minutes after 5 p.m. on the East Coast, as the first attempts at getting Starship in the air for the seventh time were delayed by weather both last week and this week.

Conditions were favorable on Thursday as SpaceX looked to follow up a successful campaign by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’s company, earlier today.

SpaceX went into the seventh Starship launch with plans for a catch attempt of the first-stage booster, something it attempted and completed during the fifth test launch last year. It decided to skip a catch attempt with the sixth test flight as conditions were not aligned.

For now, SpaceX is extremely selective as to when it attempts catches.

However, it was successful during this attempt, its second completed catch:

This flight differed from previous launches as SpaceX rolled out several improvements to the rocket and the processes as it featured plans to do a Starlink deployment simulation and had various adjustments to flap placement and avionics.

These plans were disrupted by the fact that SpaceX lost all communications with Starship about ten minutes into the flight, which the aerospace company confirmed was a result of losing the spacecraft sometime during its ascent.

Although the catch was successful, the loss of the actual rocket seemed to be a huge damper on the entire event. SpaceX confirmed several minutes after the loss of communications that the rocket was destroyed and was lost.

It was its first failure since the second Starship launch in November 2023. SpaceX had no answers for why the rocket was destroyed and lost.

We will keep you updated in the coming days.

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SpaceX confirms next Starship launch target – Here’s when it will take off

Published

2 months ago

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January 9, 2025

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spacex starship upper stage catch
Credit: Elon Musk | X

SpaceX has confirmed a new target date for the seventh Starship test launch after weather in Texas delayed the first scheduled date for “three or four days.”

The company is now targeting the launch for Monday, January 13, at 4 p.m. CST or 5 p.m. EST. The launch date is not set in stone as any variety of delays could impact this, but SpaceX hopes to finally take off after a delay that pushed it back from January 10.

What’s new with this Starship launch

With this being the seventh test launch of Starship, there are several things that the company will change and hope to accomplish. All of these launches are done in preparation for eventually taking flight to Mars, something that will happen next year, according to CEO Elon Musk.

First, SpaceX is rolling out a next-generation ship with “significant upgrades.” Forward flaps have been made smaller and are repositioned away from the heat shield, which will “reduce their exposure to reentry heating.”

SpaceX eyes 25 annual Starship launches starting next year

There is also a 25 percent increase in propellant volume, a new fuel feedline system for the Raptor vacuum engines, and a better-than-ever propulsion avionics module that will control the valves and reading sensors.

Avionics, as a whole, underwent a redesign and now have more capability and redundancy for missions as they become more complex.

Starlink test

SpaceX is also planning to deploy 10 Starlink simulators that are similar in size and weight to the next-generation Starlink satellites:

“While in space, Starship will deploy 10 Starlink simulators, similar in size and weight to next-generation Starlink satellites as the first exercise of a satellite deploy mission. The Starlink simulators will be on the same suborbital trajectory as Starship, with splashdown targeted in the Indian Ocean. A relight of a single Raptor engine while in space is also planned.”

Ship return and catch

There will be several experiments that have to do with returning Starship and various catch scenarios and sequences. One of which will see “a significant number of tiles be removed to stress-test vulnerable areas across the vehicle.”

The ship’s reentry profile was also intentionally designed to test the structural limits of the flaps while at the point of maximum dynamic pressure during reentry.

Currently, SpaceX did not detail whether it would attempt another catch during this test launch. These are usually game-time decisions.

Need accessories for your Tesla? Check out the Teslarati Marketplace:

Please email me with questions and comments at joey@teslarati.com. I’d love to chat! You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.

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