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A comment on Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t compete, SpaceX says. Parent comment

Re:Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t... by MauranKilom on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @05:46PM (#28385894)
> before they get pulled back into the atmosphere by gravity.

Irrelevant to the point, but: It's more that they get pulled further down into atmosphere by... atmosphere. With just gravity alone, they'd stay perfectly in orbit.

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Re:Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t... by chihuahua on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @06:22PM (#28386261)
I think they get pulled down by the combination of atmosphere and gravity. As you pointed out, gravity alone is not sufficient. But also, if there's only an atmosphere but no gravity, they don't get pulled down.
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Re:Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t... by BenjiWiebe on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @07:16PM (#28386748)
If there's no gravity, they don't orbit. If they orbit with gravity but with no atmosphere, they stay orbiting indefinitely.
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Re:Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t... by bigcheesegs on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @11:03PM (#28388240)
> they stay orbiting indefinitely

Not quite true. For example quite a few orbits around the moon are unstable and you will end up crashing into the surface. This is due to essentially all celestial objects not being spherical.

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Re:Amazon asked FCC to reject Starlink plan because it can’t... by smallerfish on Wednesday September 01, 2021 @06:09PM (#28386136)
Fair point, thanks. :)
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