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Electric rockets power bigger share By Wensheng Huang. To launch in 2022 and will use an SPT-140 Hall thruster system on a spacecraft jointly built by JPL and Space Systems Loral. In June, Boeing selected the PPS 5000 5-kW Hall thruster for commercial satellite applications. Qualification testing of the PPS 5000 5-kW Hall thruster had. SpaceX vs OneWeb; battling to connect the planet. The most advanced is OneWeb, backed by Greg Wyler and financed by a consortium of deep-pocketed investors including Japan’s SoftBank, Airbus, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin operation, Intelsat, Bharti of India, Qualcomm and even Coca Cola. OneWeb wants 720 satellites.
Before PostingPlease read our, and check out the! Not 100% related to SpaceX, I leave it to our mods' judgement ^Two new piece of info:900 satellites constellation(vs 648 announced initially)design and production of the first 10 satellites will be carried out at Airbus Defence and Space’s facilities in Toulouse (France). Full series production will take place at a dedicated plant located in the U.S.A.Confirms that this will lead to the creation of a JV between OneWeb and Airbus for the manufacturing part. This also most likely means that either Ariane 5 or Vega will be tasked with putting the 10 test satellites up, followed by Ariane 6 in the 2020+ horizon. Don't see Virgin Galactic being in the picture.A SpaceX vs Airbus Safran Launcher fight on the launch side (Arianespace merging into ASL is anticipated to be confirmed at the PAS2015), couple with SpaceX vs OneWeb/AirbusDS satellite manufacturing-wise, that's what our industry needed!. Could Elon have been planning an internet constellation ten years ago?I doubt it. If he did, he would've picked up the required spectrum years ago.
Elon only applied for spectrum at the ITU last year. I believe Wyler applied and was granted the Ku/Ka bands in 2003.Yet there are funny little details. Like SpaceX cooperating with Stargate, a project of University of Texas, Brownsville. One of their objectives is designing Phased Arrays, technology needed for both the satellites and ground receivers.Sometimes I think Elon Musk plays a high stakes chess game where we are not even aware of the pieces in the game. Wonder if this will be performed by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited an Airbus subsidiary company with a facility in USSSTL will certainly be in the picture at design level early on (Guildford, UK operations), involvement at the manufacturing level TBD (they only have a small office in Denver for now) but the fact that Airbus had a presence in the US certainly contributed to it winning the contract vs TAS and OHB (experience in high-volume aeronautical vehicle/equipment + majority shareholder of ASL being the more important factors imo). A SpaceX vs Airbus Safran Launcher fight on the launch side (Arianespace merging into ASL is anticipated to be confirmed at the PAS2015), couple with SpaceX vs OneWeb/AirbusDS satellite manufacturing-wise, that's what our industry needed!I too do wonder who will launch that configuration.
The launch capacity of Ariane and Vega is not very flexible. Even if ordered years early they may be able to spare only few launches if they don't abandon their traditional customers which they would not. The number of satellites for one launch is limited because they go to different planes. Besides SpaceX, who are in the process of massively increasing capacity I see only Soyuz, maybe Proton, capable of making that number of launches. Angara is scheduled to enter regular services only in the early 2020ies.
They may speed it up and replace Proton but that would still not give early capacity in volume, so basically only Soyuz. The number of satellites for one launch is limited because they go to different planesTrue that number of satellites per launch is limited, but I don't see how different orbit planes is a limiting factor - you just use the satellite's propulsion system (in this case a plasma thrusters derived from Snecma's PPS5000 which will be used on upcoming E3000 bus, and has the advantage of greatly reducing the platform's mass).If the 150kg satellite baseline is confirmed I don't see mass as the limiting factor neither; fairing volume will be. I don't see how different orbit planes is a limiting factor - you just use the satellite's propulsion system.If the 150kg satellite baseline is confirmed I don't see mass as the limiting factor neither; fairing volume will be.I have seen different opinions on changing the orbital planes. You may very well be right, that at least neighbouring orbital planes can be reached.Fully agree, fairing volume will be a limiting factor, depending on how densely the satellites can be packed, which is a design feature.