Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, August 12, SpaceX will launch another batch of Starlink Internet satellites on Friday (August 12) at 17:40 (5:40 Beijing time).

SpaceX plans to put 46 Starlink satellites (groups 3-3) into orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California via a Falcon 9 rocket. If all goes well, the first stage of the rocket will land on a drone ship in the Pacific Ocean less than nine minutes after launch and complete recovery, while the second stage will deploy satellites 63 minutes after launch.

It is said that COMSPOC recently disclosed an event called confluence Storm (conjunction squall), which appears to be space debris caused by Russia's anti-satellite system. During this period, 6000 (debris) approached or even affected 841 star chain satellites, accounting for about 30 per cent of the entire SpaceX system.

They think the storm will be made more dangerous by a new set of satellite chains. The orbits of these satellites are similar to those of remote sensing satellites in solar synchronous orbit, which orbited alongside a cluster of debris earlier this year, causing a storm. Oltrogge said the orbit had been put at risk by anti-satellite systems.

With the passage of time, this "confluence storm" will dissipate as the debris decays. However, Oltrogge said, this may only transfer the risk to other orbits, especially the International Space Station.

According to COMSPOC standards, "confluence" is defined as objects in two orbits that are no more than 6 miles (10 kilometers) apart from each other. SpaceX has not commented on whether any Starlink has been affected. CTOnews.com has learned that in past discussions about space junk, the company has stressed that its satellites can avoid approaching spacecraft or debris through mobile devices.

SpaceX said that between December 2021 and May 2022, Starlink satellites made nearly 7000 collision avoidance manoeuvres, of which 1700 were related to the above anti-satellite debris.

COMSPOC said that the third group (SpaceX's five-tier satellite) spacecraft were in similar orbits to other solar synchronous satellites, which had previously approached Russia's "anti-satellite debris."

According to Teslarati, the third group of chain satellites have an inclination of 97.6 degrees and an altitude of 347 miles (560km). SpaceX has put two other Group 3 satellites into orbit on July 10 and July 22.

If the launch goes according to plan, SpaceX will record more than 35 launches this year. The company also plans to refresh the record of 62 consecutive recoveries and 34 re-flights of booster in 2022.

According to SpaceX's mission description, Friday's flight will be the 10th flight of the Falcon 9 class.

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