Latest Developments
Starfish Space has lost contact with its first Otter servicing spacecraft, ending the NASA technology demonstration mission. SpaceX has scheduled Starship Flight 15 for Nov. 13, with plans to catch both vehicles. SpaceX vice president of launch Kiko Dontchev told the UP.Summit audience that SpaceX is now “fundamentally an infrastructure company” and that Falcon 9 is on the road to retirement. That infrastructure already includes 11,204 Starlink satellites in orbit, 11,190 of them working, out of 13,096 launched.
Space Safety
Nine upcoming conjunctions in the SOCRATES top-probability list involve Starlink satellites, and none rate as high risk. One of the nine carries upstream numbers that are physically implausible, so it reads as a stale or erroneous report rather than a real close approach. Three Starlink satellites have active reentry predictions.
Risk Starlink Sat Other Object Status Min Range (km) Rel Speed (km/s) Max Prob Time of Closest Approach HIGH STARLINK-33600 STARLINK-38095 Operational 0.011 11.247 1 (suspect) Nov 12, 13:32 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-37348 STARLINK-38237 Operational 0.022 1.007 0.4246 Nov 10, 13:49 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-3601 STARLINK-38000 Operational 0.023 11.584 0.386 Nov 10, 20:26 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-36820 STARLINK-38112 Operational 0.022 15.028 0.3293 Nov 11, 21:00 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-36562 STARLINK-38267 Operational 0.028 15.018 0.2126 Nov 13, 20:10 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-32003 STARLINK-37812 Operational 0.041 4.975 0.1793 Nov 10, 17:28 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-31098 STARLINK-37693 Operational 0.05 4.787 0.1337 Nov 12, 21:01 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-32572 STARLINK-37709 Operational 0.05 7.31 0.1274 Nov 12, 15:05 UTC MODERATE STARLINK-31535 STARLINK-38346 Operational 0.057 5.754 0.1075 Nov 11, 11:55 UTC
Satellite NORAD ID Predicted Decay Window (min) Inclination Lat Lon STARLINK-1274 45387 Nov 10, 17:31 UTC 900 53° 44.9° 58.5° STARLINK-1400 45700 Nov 11, 08:29 UTC 840 53° -30.2° 263.4° STARLINK-1284 45390 Nov 11, 23:49 UTC 1080 53° -9.3° 117°
Detailed Coverage
Starfish Space Loses Its First Otter
Starfish Space no longer has contact with its first Otter servicing spacecraft. The loss ends the NASA tech-demo mission the spacecraft was flying. The mission was meant to show that a small commercial vehicle could do in-orbit servicing work.
This update confirms the mission is over. For the first report and background on the spacecraft, see our earlier coverage.
Read the full story: Space.com
SpaceX Exec Says Falcon 9 Is Headed for Retirement
Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX vice president of launch, spoke last week at the UP.Summit conference in Florida. “Yes, we are a rocket company, but fundamentally we are an infrastructure company at this point,” he said. He listed the ground segment and low Earth orbit, then the Moon, then Mars. He also described Falcon 9 as firmly on the road to retirement.
Dontchev said AI adoption inside SpaceX has sped up sharply this year, after the company acquired xAI. He said some tasks that used to take hours or days now take seconds or minutes. He described the gain in engineering speed as unlike anything he has seen in his 16 years at the company.
Read the full story: Ars Technica
Starship Flight 15 Targets Nov. 13 With a Double Catch
SpaceX has set Nov. 13 as the launch date for Starship Flight 15. The flight plan calls for a double catch, with the tower recovering both the Super Heavy booster and the Starship upper stage.
Read the full story: Space.com
Constellation Status
The Starlink constellation is unchanged since the last check. SpaceX has launched 13,096 Starlink satellites, and 11,204 remain in orbit, 11,190 of them working. 1,892 have decayed, per data updated November 9 at 01:19 UTC.
Total Launched: 13096
Total On Orbit: 11204
Total Working: 11190
Track Starlink satellites in real-time: Track Starlink
