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Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Largest Satellite Launched

See the picture at the link.  Yes, I am worried, will kids in the future be able to see the night sky?  See the pic at the link.

The largest commercial communications array ever has just launched. Expect to see it – it’s huge and bright

The problem is, it might outshine all stars and planets.

On the weekend SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket launched a giant satellite into space.

Called BlueWalker 3, it’s a prototype by American company AST SpaceMobile, which is to create a space-based mobile broadband network. This is only one of multiple satellites planned for the SpaceMobile constellation – some even bigger than BlueWalker 3.

“The reason why our satellite is large is because in order to communicate with a low-power, low internal strength phone, you just need a large antenna on one side with a lot of power, and so that’s a critical part of our infrastructure,” AST SpaceMobile Chief Strategy Officer Scott Wisniewski told Space.com.

“We think that’s really important for communicating directly with regular handsets, with no change to the handset, with no extra burdens on the user.”

Although this is potentially exciting for those who need that connectivity, astronomers are concerned about just how big and bright this satellite will be.  ... ' 

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