SpaceX satellite biz banking on South Texas Starship launch

As SpaceX works toward the first orbital launch of a Starship from South Texas, its with the idea of deploying hundreds of the Starlink communications satellites the company has said are key to its future.

Elon Musks private space company this month has been conducting static fire tests full dress rehearsals for a rocket in preparation for the massive Starships long-sought first trip into orbit from Boca Chica. Its also been raising billions of dollars to fund the Starship and Starlink projects.

While Musk has been widely quoted about his dreams of colonizing Mars and taking people and cargo to the moon, his companys immediate plans are in low earth orbit, with a satellite business thats taking an increasingly Texas flavor.

The big secret that is not so secret is that they now have actual Starlink satellites there in Boca Chica and have loaded them in to SN24 like a giant PEZ dispenser, an ex-SpaceX employee said this week, referring by number to a Starship thats been on the launch pad since early last month. On the first orbital launch from Boca, Elon wants to deploy satellites on its very first test mission, which is very ambitious.

Launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center at Port Canaveral, Fla., at 10:14 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, launching Starlink satellites. In the foreground is the booster from last Thursday's SpaceX KPLO mission, that returned to Port Canaveral on the drone ship, now suspended on the giant mobile harbor crane. (Malcolm Denemark/Florida Today via AP)

On ExpressNews.com: Its not going to be as sexy: Boca Chica looks toward a SpaceX future less lofty than itd hoped

The former employee spoke on condition of anonymity to share knowledge of the companys plans.

In a tweet early this month, Musk said a *successful* orbital flight is probably between 1 and 12 months from now.

SpaceX has long touted Starships potential to ramp up its Starlink network. In 2019, Gwynne Shotwell, president and CEO, said that while its Falcon 9 rocket could launch 60 Starlink satellites per batch, Starship could take 400 satellites at a time into orbit.

Since 2019, the company has deployed thousands of satellites into low-Earth orbit to create its planned constellation of tens of thousands of orbiting transmitters beaming internet service to customers from 100 miles above the planet. The Starlink service is available in parts of Texas, and Musk recently said its now active in Ukraine.

A photo provided by SpaceX shows a view of SpaceXs Starlinks satellites just before being deployed on May 24, 2019. Various companies are pressing ahead with plans for internet service from space, which has prompted astronomers to voice concerns about the impact on research from telescopes on Earth. (SpaceX via The New York Times) -- NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY WITH NYT STORY SPACEX LAUNCH BY SHANNON HALL FOR NOV. 11, 2019. ALL OTHER USE PROHIBITED. --

In anticipation of the orbital launch, SpaceX fans have posted articles, tweets and YouTube videos about Starlink sightings at the Starship compound.

The YouTube fanboy videos are guessing correctly, the ex-SpaceX employee said. But the average Joe on the street certainly isnt aware of it.

In the meantime, SpaceX is continuing to use the Falcon 9 to grow its satellite business. Last week, the reusable rocket carried 46 Starlink satellites to low-earth orbit from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It was the companys tenth flight of the Falcon 9 booster, including two Starlink missions.

On ExpressNews.com: Elon Musk warns SpaceX faces genuine risk of bankruptcy if engine production troubles continue

SpaceX, which is headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif., has built a launch facility in Boca Chica it calls Starbase, and a rocket testing facility in McGregor, near Waco.

In this photo provided by the U..S. Space Force, a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket carrying Starlink mission 3-3 launches from Space Launch Complex-4E on Friday, Aug. 12, 2022, at 2:40 p.m. PDT, Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. SpaceX has launched 46 more Starlink satellites into orbit from California. The satellites were carried aboard a Falcon 9 rocket that blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base on the central coast at 2:40 p.m. Friday. (Airman 1st ClassCKadielle Shaw/U.S. Space Force via AP)

While the private company continues to manufacture its Starlink units in Redmond, Wash., east of Seattle, its also apparently preparing to start making them in Texas.

To keep up with global demand, SpaceX is breaking ground on a new, state of the art manufacturing facility in Austin, TX, the company said in a March 2021 job posting seeking an engineer for its Starlink satellite internet division.

Tuesday, SpaceXs website had three job openings in Austin including a senior application software engineer, facilities engineer and development test engineer.

Our team is currently creating and evolving systems to enable rapid build and reuse of Starship as well as designing the next generation manufacturing software that will be used in high throughput factories for Starlink, according to the software engineer posting. Other applications range from platforms that support concurrent streams of data from many always-on assets to manage the worlds largest satellite constellation to public facing systems where customers can join our Starlink network globally.

Another four of the companys 120 jobs postings for Brownsville made references to Starlink.

SpaceX performed a static fire of a single Raptor engine on the Super Heavey Booster 7 on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022 at its Starbase site in Boca Chica, Texas. (SpaceX/TNS)

Starship prototypes went through five suborbital tests in the spring of 2021. Until earlier this year, though, the engines had fallen silent.

The static fire tests being conducted as recently as last week on the Starship on the launch pad at Starbase are a sign SpaceX is advancing toward launching the vehicle into orbit from the Boca Chica site.

Last weeks successful tests came nearly a month after an explosion rocked the site while firing the rockets engines, creating a fireball that sent plumes of smoke into the skies above nearby Boca Chica Beach.

On ExpressNews.com: SpaceX booster test explosion, fire slows companys progress toward orbital launch from Boca Chica

Yeah, actually not good. Team is assessing damage, Musk, founder of SpaceX, said in tweet on July 11.

William Stark of Dallas walk on Boca Chica beach as SpaceX Booster 7 is seen at the launchpad on Friday, July 1, 2022. For years, Elon Musk has touted SpaceXs compound in Boca Chica as the Gateway to Mars the site from which his company would launch its massive Starship to carry astronauts to the moon and Mars. But South Texas residents now fear Musk is abandoning Starbase as his premiere launch site.

Musk, who flew to Starbase that night, said problems arose from testing all the Raptor 2 engines on the booster at once. This particular issue, however, was specific to the engine spin start test (Raptor has a complex start sequence), he said. Going forward, we wont do a spin start test with all 33 engines at once.

SpaceX managed to save the hardware, he said, and the booster was inspected.

The explosion came about a month after the Federal Aviation Administration concluded an environmental review of SpaceXs plans for orbital launches from the 47-acre facility, issuing a finding of no significant impact. The FAA said it would require SpaceX to take more than 75 actions to mitigate environmental impacts before issuing the operator license needed to launch from the site.

The company hasnt yet obtained a license from the FAA.

Last week, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission suggested another Starship launch date as it said SpaceX could pursue radio-spectrum tests between Sept. 9 and March 1. The FCC granted special temporary authority for the company to conduct experimental orbital demo and recovery test of the Starship test vehicle from Boca Chica TX, according to an FCC filing.

The radio spectrum license is just to let FCC and FAA know that they will be communicating radio signals on frequencies throughout the upper levels of the stratosphere and possibly beyond, the ex-SpaceX employee said. They need FCC approval so as not to conflict with any possible telecommunications satellite.

eric.killelea@express-news.net

Original post:

SpaceX satellite biz banking on South Texas Starship launch