Re:SpaceX Smallsat Rideshare Program
by Symmetry on Monday August 05, 2019 @05:15PM
(#20619051)
The Starlink satellites are using hundreds of m/s raising and lowering their orbit. The sort of plane change you're talking about would take something close to a thousand, conservatively.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Not if it's a near-polar orbit. They'll probably need some in that orbit eventually.
They're only going up to 84 degrees inclination [0]. Not surprising there's an absolutely tiny number of customers that would use it if they added enough satellites to make 100% coverage.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink_(satellite_constellat...
Hmmm, that is a relatively high delta-v to change inclination that much (~1.5-2 km/s for a ~12-15 degree difference). On the other hand, if the shared payloads are light enough (and they very well may be, particularly if the launch is undersubscribed), the upper stage could do the orbital transfer and should have plenty of delta-v to do so (particularly with a droneship landing) considering F9 regularly does recoverable flights with many tons through 2.5km/s above LEO.