Yesterday, The Everyday Astronaut (aka Tim Dodd) published his latest Starbase tour and video Q+A with Elon Musk.
The two journey to the top of the giant, 143-meter robotic chopsticks tower built to catch Starship, taking in the impressive views of Starbase and talking about the super-heavy launch vehicle and the other goings-on at SpaceX.
Starlink v2: Musk unveiled some news about the next-generation Starlink satellites during the tower tour:
- The first editions of the next-gen Starlink buses have been produced.
- At 7m long and 1.2 tons apiece, they’re ~4x larger than the first generation sats.
- Per Musk, the new generation of Starlink will be an order of magnitude more powerful than the first generation in terms of data throughput.
SpaceX has been launching batches of Starlink V1.5 satellites since September 2021. Those satellites are equipped with laser inter-satellite links to communicate with one another.
SpaceX is counting on the success of Starship to ensure the success of the next-gen Starlink program. The giant rocket’s launch from Starbase has been delayed by extended environmental reviews. Currently, the FAA is planning to publish its review of Starship by the end of this month.
