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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Fifty oil and gas companies pledged to zero out methane emissions by 2030 at the UN climate summit.</li><li>Satellites are being deployed to track whether these companies actually meet their promises.</li></ul>Catherine Boudreau reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Erin Snodgrass reported from Los Angeles.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/satellites-locate-source-of-methane-leaks-to-fight-climate-crisis-2022-7">Satellites are the next tool</a> that will hold oil and gas companies accountable in their promise to cut methane emissions and slow global warming.The United Arab Emirates, host of this year's UN climate summit COP28, on Saturday announced that dozens of oil and gas companies — accounting for 40% of global production — aim to nearly eliminate their methane emissions by 2030. Many state-owned oil companies signed on, including the UAE's Adnoc, as well as Saudi Arabia's Saudi Aramco. US firms ExxonMobil and Shell, and other international oil majors will also participate.Shortly after, a separate initiative was announced that will use satellites to track whether the companies keep their promise. The billionaire businessman and philanthropist Michael Bloomberg pledged $40 million to the initiative — a partnership with the Environmental Defense Fund that will launch its own satellite early next year."Oil and gas companies often don't have the data on these methane emissions, including where leaks are happening," Bloomberg, UN special envoy for climate ambition and solutions, told reporters in Dubai. "Even when data is available, there often aren't rules and incentives in place to make sure companies do something about it."Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide, though it only lingers in the atmosphere for about a decade compared with centuries for carbon dioxide. That short lifespan is why climate scientists say eliminating methane emissions is one of the quickest ways to slow global warming.The oil and gas industry <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023">is responsible for 40% of human-caused methane emissions</a> from leaking wells, compression stations, and pipelines, as well as by routinely burning off excess gas in a practice known as venting and flaring.Even though numerous countries and oil and gas companies have pledged to slash methane emissions in recent years, they are still rising to record levels, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iea.org/reports/global-methane-tracker-2023/overview">according to the IEA</a>. The agency, <a target="_blank" href="https://salatainstitute.harvard.edu/quantifying-methane-to-the-sky-and-beyond/#:~:text=Compelled%20by%20Sargent%20and%20Budney's,U.S.%20Environmental%20Protection%20Agency's%20inventories.">university scientists</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.edf.org/climate/methane-studies#:~:text=Extensive%20research%20led%20by%20EDF,than%20the%20government's%20estimate%20suggests.">environmental groups</a> have published research showing that national governments are significantly undercounting total emissions.Historically, measuring methane was challenging because the gas is colorless, leaks are unpredictable, and finding them involved expensive field studies with aircraft and handheld infrared cameras. That approach only offered a snapshot in time and the research took a long time to publish.Those methods have changed over the last decade. A new generation of satellites can now pinpoint methane leaks almost anywhere and, within days, computers equipped with AI models can calculate the amount of emissions escaping. This, in turn, means oil and gas companies responsible for the plumes can be notified faster and potentially take action.The UN last year launched its own methane alert and response system that uses satellites to monitor emissions and notify countries and companies. Since then, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/uns-global-methane-tracking-system-set-translate-data-revolution">1,500 methane plumes were identified</a> and some governments took action, including Argentina.The 50 oil and gas companies that signed a "decarbonization charter" on Saturday in Dubai agreed to eliminate routine flaring, improve the way they monitor methane leaks, and report progress on reducing emissions.COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who also heads Adnoc, during a speech on Saturday said that tackling methane emissions are "a quick and easy win." Adnoc earlier this year already promised to zero-out the pollutant by 2030, even as it plans to expand oil production.<div type="image" title="COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber walks through the venue ahead of the UN Climate Summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates." height="5760" width="8640" msid="105684000" hostid="261" sizebytes="420292"></div>"If companies deliver, we calculate it means reducing methane emission by 80% to 90%, which is critical," EDF President Fred Krupp told reporters. "But that only happens if there's accountability."The satellite being launched by EDF, known as MethaneSAT, can regularly monitor methane emissions from regions accounting for much of the world's oil and gas production. That includes emerging and developing economies, where state-owned oil companies have been largely absent from methane pledges until now.The data gathered by satellites can also help climate advocates push governments to implement tougher methane laws. EDF and Bloomberg Philanthropies are working with the IEA, UN, and the climate nonprofit RMI on its accountability push.<h2>The EPA's 'super emitter' program</h2>The US and European Union are already cracking down on methane emissions. The US Environmental Protection Agency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/biden-harris-administration-finalizes-standards-slash-methane-pollution-combat-climate#:~:text=EPA's%20final%20rule%20leverages%20the,the%20power%20sector%20in%202021.">on Saturday finalized regulations</a> that will reduce an estimated 58 million tons of methane emissions over the next 15 years. That figure is comparable to the emissions released by the entire US power sector in 2021, the agency said. The rules require companies to monitor leaks, limit flaring at oil wells, and reduce emissions from equipment like pumps and storage tanks.A "super emitter" program will allow certain third parties that detect large methane plumes to submit data to EPA, which will do its own verification before notifying the oil and gas company responsible.The methane that will be captured, rather than released into the atmosphere, would be enough to heat 7.8 millions homes this winter, EPA officials said during a press conference Friday. Once fully implemented, the rule will prevent the emissions of the equivalent of 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, they said.The EU in November agreed to its first-ever law directing fossil fuel companies to measure and report their methane emissions, and bans most flaring and venting by 2027.The US and EU are part of the Global Methane Pledge that calls for a 30% reduction in methane emissions by 2030. At least 155 countries have signed the pledge, which launched in 2021 at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.However, China and Russia — the top two producers of methane emissions in the world — aren't signatories. China in November <a target="_blank" href="https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-unveils-action-plan-reduce-methane-emissions-2023-11-07/">published its own plan to reduce the pollutant</a>, but it doesn't include any hard targets. The country's state-owned oil companies are also absent from the "decabonization charter" announced in Dubai.Melanie Robinson, global climate program director at the World Resources Institute, said in a statement that the methane commitments were encouraging but require strong measures to hold oil and gas companies accountable.She added that the oil and gas sector still isn't being held accountable for all the emissions created by the fuel they sell to other industries. That's akin to a cigarette maker "claiming no responsibility for the impact of their product once it leaves the factory door," Robinson said, adding that voluntary promises alone won't acheive global climate goals.

Satellites are the new climate police for oil and gas polluters

China on Friday successfully sent 13 satellites, including 10 from Argentina, into the orbit in what was stated to be the biggest launch of foreign satellites by the country that could fetch hundreds of millions of dollars to the communist nation. The satellites, including 10 commercial remote sensing satellites developed by Argentinian company Satellogic, blasted off atop a Long March-6 carrier rocket from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in north China's Shanxi Province, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. According to officials, Friday's launch was the 351st by the Long March rocket series. Last year the official media reports said that China plans to launch 90 earth observation satellites for Satellogic. China has been using its space rockets to put satellites of several countries, including close ally, Pakistan. Though financial terms of the deal with Argentina were not disclosed, Fu Zhiheng, vice-president of Great Wall, the international arm of State-owned space conglomerate China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp, told state-run China Daily last year that the deal is at the level of hundreds of millions of US dollars. That makes it one of the largest contracts China has obtained in the international space market in the past several years, he said. It is also the first time that China will launch such a large number of satellites for a foreign client, Fu said, adding Great Wall will continue to promote the Long March 6 in the international market. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/aws-expands-india-footprint-with-plans-for-a-second-cluster-of-data-centers-in-hyderabad-by-2022/articleshow/79075220.cms">AWS pumps $2.7 billion into India to set up a second cluster of data centers in Hyderabad by 2022</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/india-and-china-slated-to-hold-8th-round-of-military-level-talks-as-troops-gear-up-for-ladakhs-sub-zero-winters/articleshow/79074473.cms">India and China slated to hold 8th round of military-level talks as troops gear up for Ladakh’s sub-zero winters</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/whatsapp-pay-upi-rolls-out-while-google-pay-phonepe-have-already-got-the-first-sting-with-the-npci-cap/articleshow/79075049.cms">WhatsApp Pay UPI is now live while Google Pay, PhonePe have already got the first sting</a>

China successfully conducts its largest launch ever, putting 13 satellites with a single rocket

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360701" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="spacex">SpaceX</keyword> has rocketed nearly 900 <keyword id="7612156" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="starlink">Starlink</keyword> <keyword id="41530" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="satellites">satellites</keyword> into orbit to build a high-speed internet service.</li><li><keyword id="6355315" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="elon-musk">Elon Musk</keyword>, the company's founder, says Starlink will soon open for a public beta, followed by paid US service shortly thereafter.</li><li>Early results are promising, with high speeds and low latencies. SpaceX even gave <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-challenges-cost-2020-6">Starlink terminals</a> to Washington State emergency responders and the Hoh Tribe, which both lauded the technology.</li><li>Starlink also got <keyword id="160638" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="FCC">FCC</keyword> approval to bid for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-unlikely-winner-fcc-rural-digital-opportunity-fund-subsidy-2020-8">$20.4 billion in subsidies</a>, is close to being licensed in <keyword id="6356687" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="canada">Canada</keyword> and <keyword id="6355478" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="australia">Australia</keyword>, and has won multiple <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-microsoft-azure-starlink-dod-pentagon-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-detection-2020-10">US military contracts</a>.</li><li>But Starlink faces significant challenges in terms of the network's capacity, effects on astronomy, and creation of space debris. </li></ul>SpaceX is on a winning streak with its ambitious plan to envelop Earth with broadband internet service, called Starlink, and shows no signs of slowing down.But its mission isn't without controversy or opposition — including from astronomers and companies trying to launch rockets through an ever-crowded path to orbit. The aerospace company, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, wants to launch nearly 12,000 Starlink satellites <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7251276-DA-19-342A1.html#document/p14/a586115" target="_blank" rel="noopener">by mid-2027</a>, though possibly <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-internet-satellites-itc-filing-30000-additional-42000-total-2019-10">up to 42,000</a>. The goal is to nab $30 billion to $50 billion a year from a trillion-dollar global <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-spacex-amazon-new-satellite-internet-services-will-change-earth-2020-3">telecommunications industry</a>, Musk has said.To that end, SpaceX <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM8CDDAmp98" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rocketed</a> 60 more of its flat, desk-size satellites a few hundred miles above Earth on October 18, then another 60 on Saturday. The launches marked the project's 13th and 14th operational missions. SpaceX plans to fly Starlink-15 in early November, then batches of dozens more roughly every two weeks thereafter.At least <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201019184734/https://planet4589.org/space/stats/megacon/starbad.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">820 working Starlink satellites</a> are in orbit right now. That represents more than one-quarter of <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database" target="_blank" rel="noopener">all active spacecraft</a> around the planet and nearly half of those in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/earth-moon-distance-edge-of-outer-space-2018-5">low-Earth orbit</a>. While not enough to provide coverage around the world, Musk says it's plenty to kick off <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-enough-satellites-to-launch-public-beta-2020-10">a full public beta test</a> in North America in the next few months.At the current rate of launch, SpaceX could get enough satellites in orbit for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-service-when-available-date-2019-5">"significant" global service</a> before 2020 is over."For the system to be economically viable, it's really on the order of 1,000 satellites," Musk <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-service-when-available-date-2019-5">told Business Insider</a> during a press call in May 2019, adding: "[It] is obviously a lot of satellites, but it's way less than 10,000 or 12,000."A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-broke-satellite-launch-record-one-month-2020-6">record-breaking flight schedule</a> that's building out an operational internet service is just one way SpaceX has hit a remarkable streak with Starlink over the past couple of months — though not without controversy.<h2>SpaceX 'just catapulted us into the 21st century'</h2><h3><div type="image" title="spacex starlink satellite falcon 9 rocket launch october 6 2020 flickr 50428050591_36defbe958_o" height="2000" width="3000" msid="78809589" hostid="261"></div></h3>Some of SpaceX's biggest wins stemmed from a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-service-summer-beta-signup-application-website-2020-6">private beta test</a> the company began this summer. Testers, most of them remote residents of the US Northwest, were supposed to stay quiet, per nondisclosure agreements <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-wesbite-user-terminal-satellite-dish-pictures-beta-test-2020-7">they had to sign</a>. But some publicly tested their connections, allowing Reddit users to get ahold of the results and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/i9w09n/list_of_confirmed_starlink_speed_tests/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post them online</a>.The data revealed broadband-like internet performance not yet seen via a satellite system: Connections not only showed speedy download and upload rates, but also had a low ping — a measure of round-trip travel time for data, which is essential to fluid videoconferencing, voice calls, gaming, and other real-time applications.The Federal Communications Commission, for its part, took notice of the new Starlink beta data. The regulatory agency initially <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-unlikely-winner-fcc-rural-digital-opportunity-fund-subsidy-2020-8">doubted satellites could compete</a> with fiberoptic and other ground-based broadband internet services in the agency's <keyword id="9834789" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="rural-digital-opportunity-fund">Rural Digital Opportunity Fund</keyword> — a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-beta-speedtest-results-bandwidth-ping-latency-fcc-rdof-2020-8">$20.4-billion subsidy program</a> to shore up internet service in under-connected US areas. But on October 13, commissioners named SpaceX <a href="https://spacenews.com/fcc-rural-broadband-qualified-bidders-2020/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a "qualified bidder,"</a> which permits the company to compete in a reverse-auction process that starts October 29.SpaceX also <a href="https://twitter.com/joroulette/status/1317239623203102722/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a> in a recent FCC filing that it plans to increase its upload and download speeds 250% with a software update to its satellites and "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-ground-station-possible-pictures-2020-6">UFO on a stick</a>" user terminals. And, as if to spike the football, SpaceX also gave permission to <a href="https://twitter.com/waEMD/status/1310660332512190464">first responders</a> and the Hoh Tribe of Washington state to speak up about their experiences using Starlink. Both groups <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/washington-emergency-responders-use-spacex-starlink-satellite-internet.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raved</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/10/remote-tribe-says-spacex-starlink-catapulted-them-into-21st-century/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">about</a> the service."The last eight years, I feel like we have been paddling up river with a spoon and almost getting nowhere with getting internet to the reservation," Melvinjohn Ashue, vice chair for the Hoh Tribe, said in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLY8xLXP0E" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> posted by Washington State's Department of Commerce. "It seemed like out of nowhere, SpaceX just came up and just catapulted us into the 21st century. Our youth are able to do education online [and] participate in videos. Telehealth is no longer going to be an issue."<div type="image" title="space starlink satellite internet coverage animation signal cones_slow.2019 10 18 14_13_35" height="506" width="900" msid="78809592" hostid="261"></div>Another element of Starlink's streak has been sudden progress toward international licensing, which is essential to the project's business case. Without an ability to beam down data to servers in foreign countries, the project would have to route its internet traffic through <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fiberoptic-internet-cables-ocean-bottom-map-2015-9">undersea fiberoptic cables</a> instead of via lasers through the vacuum of space (which SpaceX apparently recently <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-satellite-tests-show-internet-speeds-of-100-mbps-2020-9">tested with great success</a>).Wireless signals are tightly controlled by government agencies to avoid interference problems, though, so Starlink can only be used in countries that explicitly authorize it. Gaining that permission has seemed sluggish, but SpaceX made significant progress in both <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/j8b6bn/starlink_australia_came_out_of_stealth_mode_after/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Australia</a> and <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2020/lt201015.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canada</a> over the past few weeks. Although more steps remain before users can connect to Starlink in either country, both countries have awarded SpaceX basic operation licenses.Sleuths have also discovered Starlink licensing efforts in Argentina, Austria, Chile, Colombia, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, and Spain, according to <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20201020014253/https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/wiki/index#wiki_-_will_there_be_service_in_my_country.3F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an unofficial roundup on Reddit</a> and various news reports. In many cases, reporters found this month, SpaceX used a series of <a href="https://www.clubic.com/pro/personnalites-e-business/elon-musk/actualite-17010-tibro-quand-starlink-avance-masquee-derriere-des-societes-ecrans-en-europe.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shell companies with the word "Tibro"</a> in them — "orbit" spelled backward — to quietly advance regulatory applications.SpaceX has also garnered newfound favor within the Department of Defense. After winning a $28 million contract with the US Air Force in 2018, for a project to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musks-satellite-project-testing-encrypted-internet-with-military-planes-2019-10">test encrypted Starlink internet on military airplanes</a>, SpaceX picked up <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/musks-spacex-wins-pentagon-award-for-missile-tracking-satellites-2020-10">a new $149 million contract</a> with the Pentagon in early October to build Starlink-like satellites able to detect the launch of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/intercontinental-ballistic-missiles-science-2017-7">ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic missiles</a>.And on Tuesday, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-microsoft-azure-starlink-dod-pentagon-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-detection-2020-10">Microsoft </a><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-microsoft-azure-starlink-dod-pentagon-intercontinental-ballistic-missile-detection-2020-10">said</a> SpaceX's Starlink will connect its new modular data center business and help expand the company's Azure cloud-computing business to remote areas, such as military bases and disaster areas. The scheme would compete with the plans of Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, who wants to link AWS cloud-computing services using a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-kuiper-fcc-authorization-satellite-internet-10-billion-dollar-investement-2020-7">forthcoming Kuiper satellite-internet constellation</a>.<h2>But Starlink is not without major challenges or controversy</h2><div type="image" title="starlink train" height="1013" width="1351" msid="78809595" hostid="261"></div>While thousands of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth might seem like a great way to beam internet to anyone who wants it, analysts at the research firm Cowen suggest there are hard limitations ahead.Cowen analysts said in <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7273218-Prepare-for-Liftoff-Starlink-Coming-Soon-Minimal.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a September 23 industry update</a>, which focused on Starlink, that SpaceX's full 12,000-satellite network could support less than half a million users simultaneously using all of a 100 megabit-per-second connection speed.That's not realistic, Cowen said, since all connections are never always in use. Yet even accounting for the industry-standard practice of "oversubscribing" an internet network's full capabilities, SpaceX may see a maximum of 1.5 million users in the US, <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/4g3gwifi/starlinks-network-faces-significant-limitations-analysts-find/d/d-id/764159" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LightReading reported</a> — and that assumes people will consume bandwidth at current levels (which they won't, given the rising use of increasingly high-definition streaming video).SpaceX might alleviate the problem by adding 30,000 additional satellites and upgrading its spacecraft every five years or so, as Musk said the company would do. But there is a limit to the wireless signals Starlink use."There's only so much data you can push through the license before you run out of the capacity to move information," <a href="https://www.eff.org/about/staff/ernesto-omar-falcon">Ernesto Falcon</a>, a senior legislative counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who focuses on broadband access and competition policies, told Business Insider in September. "You can't rewrite rewrite the laws of physics."It also remains to be seen <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-user-terminal-challenges-cost-2020-6">how affordable SpaceX can make user terminals</a> that connect users to Starlink satellites. Musk has said SpaceX is targeting $200 per terminal, though analysts say the key component — a phased-array antenna — can <a href="http://tmfassociates.com/blog/2019/12/12/reality-and-hype-in-satellite-constellations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cost 10 times as much</a>.<div type="image" title="spacex starlink internet satellite spacecraft solar panels arrays earth orbit illustration 00002" height="1080" width="1920" msid="78809596" hostid="261"></div>There's also the issue of crowding in orbit by "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/animation-internet-satellites-surrounding-earth-starlink-kuiper-oneweb-agi-2020-1">megaconstellations</a>" like Starlink, Kuiper, OneWeb, and others. Peter Beck, the CEO of the rocket-launch startup Rocket Lab, said it's increasingly difficult to find a clear path to orbit with the deployment of Starlink."This has a massive impact on the launch side," he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/07/business/rocket-lab-debris-launch-traffic-scn/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told CNN Business</a> earlier this month. "[Rockets] have to try and weave their way up in between these [satellite] constellations."Astronomers are none too pleased by Starlink, either, even after SpaceX's efforts to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-sun-shades-visors-cut-reflection-telescope-problems-remain-2020-8">darken them and prevent shiny parts from reflecting sunlight</a> toward the ground. Such glare has ruined sensitive telescope observations, including some designed to look for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-space-telescope-to-detect-deadly-asteroids-2019-9">asteroids that may threaten Earth</a>. A heated debate has also emerged about whether or not huge fleets of satellites will trigger a crisis in orbit that could last centuries: the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-junk-kessler-syndrome-chain-reaction-prevention-2018-3">creation of orbital debris</a> that can occur when <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/soviet-satellite-chinese-rocket-might-crash-in-space-2020-10">satellites crash into each other</a> or pieces of existing debris.Starlink spacecraft can maneuver in space with a krypton-ion drive, so long as that engine and communication systems to control it work. But around 3% of the 835 Starlink satellites already launched to orbit have failed or stopped maneuvering, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell.While not out of line for the industry, and not a big problem now, he <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starlink-internet-satellites-percent-failure-rate-space-debris-risk-2020-10">told Business Insider's Morgan McFall-Johnsen</a> that it could become one with the deployment of thousands of spacecraft."I would say their failure rate is not egregious," McDowell said. "It's not worse than anybody else's failure rates. The concern is that even a normal failure rate in such a huge constellation is going to end up with a lot of bad space junk."This story has been updated with new information. It was originally published on October 22, 2020.

SpaceX is on a stunning streak with Starlink, Elon Musk's plan to bathe Earth in high-speed internet. But the scheme isn't without big snags.

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/40126462231/">SpaceX/Flickr (public domain)</a>SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket launches toward space for the first time on February 6, 2018.</div></div></div><ul><li>SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, plans to launch a Spanish satellite on Saturday with a Falcon 9 rocket.</li><li>However, the launch will also deploy two experimental communications satellites.</li><li>The two satellites may test aspects of "Starlink," a space-based internet project that would bathe Earth in high-speed internet access.</li><li>The Starlink plan calls for nearly 12,000 interlinked satellites - many times more than currently orbit Earth - but Musk and SpaceX have been relatively quiet about it.</li></ul> SpaceX, the rocket company founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, is keeping quiet about a plan to bathe the Earth in high-speed internet access.During a press briefing with Musk about the Falcon Heavy rocket launch, Business Insider inquired about Starlink, as the global internet network project is informally known (according <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2017/spacex-seeks-trademark-name-starlink-satellite-broadband-network/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to Geekwire</a>) - to no avail. "Off topic," Musk said. "Today's topic is Falcon Heavy."However, secrecy is difficult for SpaceX to maintain given public government documents, leaks, and the incredible scale of its proposal: The company hopes to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-internet-satellite-constellation-2016-11">launch 4,425 interlinked broadband internet satellites</a> into orbit some 700-800 miles above Earth, plus <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/document/5a847b328ceb95251db845d7/spacex-fcc-starlink-senate-testimony.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">another 7,500</a> into lower orbits.Musk's company has filed several documents with the Federal Communications Commission related to an early test of Starlink, which involves launching two small telecommunications satellites: Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b.The FCC <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/spacex-elon-musk-launches-internet-satellites-saturday-falcon-9/">gave SpaceX FCC permission</a> for the test in November, and new documents - now reveal that SpaceX will piggyback Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b onto its launch of a Spanish radar satellite called Paz.The mission is slated to lift off from Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday at 9:14 a.m. ET aboard a Falcon 9 rocket, according <a href="https://spaceflightnow.com/launch-schedule/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to Spaceflight Now</a>.<h2>Why SpaceX wants to become an internet service provider</h2><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="http://davemosher.com">Dave Mosher/Business Insider</a>Elon Musk speaks to journalists during a Falcon Heavy press conference on February 6, 2018.</div></div></div>SpaceX is looking to corner an increasingly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-cost-industry-pricing-vs-ula-2018-2">competitive race</a> to establish fast, pervasive, and affordable internet access. The company thinks such a market is worth tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars a year, and will only grow as more people get online.A space-based satellite network that communicates with cheap ground stations, the thinking goes, could circumvent the headaches and expense of on-the-ground technologies."[T]he common challenges associated with siting, digging trenches, laying fiber, and dealing with property rights are materially alleviated through a space-based broadband network," Patricia Cooper, SpaceX's vice president of satellite government affairs, wrote in a May 2017 congressional testimony.A truly global space-based internet network, if low-cost or provided for free to some regions, could solve equal-access issues by bathing the whole planet in 1 Gbps internet.The global average for internet speed per user in late 2015, according <a href="https://www.akamai.com/us/en/multimedia/documents/content/state-of-the-internet/q4-2015-state-of-the-internet-connectivity-report-us.pdf">Akamai's "State of the Internet" report</a>, was 5.1 Mbps. That's about 200 times slower than SpaceX's target, with most of the higher speeds tied up in cable and fiber-optic connections.In a <a href="http://broadbandcommission.org/Documents/publications/HLPF-July2016.pdf">July 2016 legal filing,</a> SpaceX also pointed out that "4.2 billion people (or 57% of the world's population) are offline for a wide range of reasons, but often also because the necessary connectivity is not present or not affordable," citing <a href="http://broadbandcommission.org/Documents/publications/HLPF-July2016.pdf">a July report</a> by UNESCO's Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.<h2>What the Microsat mission will do</h2>Musk first discussed the satellite constellation project in January 2015, later <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/space-x-is-trying-to-serve-up-internet-service-from-space-2015-6">filing for an FCC application</a> to test basic technologies that would support it. At the time, <a href="http://shitelonsays.com/transcript/spacex-seattle-2015-2015-01-15">Musk said</a>:"We're really talking about something which is, in the long term, like rebuilding the internet in space. The goal will be to have the majority of long distance internet traffic go over this network and about 10% of local consumer and business traffic. So that's, still probably 90% of people's local access will come from fiber but we'll do about 10% business to consumer direct and more than half of the long distance traffic."About <a href="http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-weapons/space-weapons/satellite-database">1,738 active satellites are currently orbiting Earth</a>, according to a database compiled by the Union of Concerned Scientists. In addition, roughly 2,600 <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nuclear-powered-satellites-space-2016-3">dead satellites</a> are likely floating in space. But even factoring those in, SpaceX's planned fleet would be nearly three times larger than everything already in space.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/34006001860">SpaceX/Flickr (public domain)</a>One of SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket launches.</div></div></div>The new FCC documents suggest the test pair of satellites will be sent into orbit about 318 miles above Earth. (By comparison, the International Space Station orbits the planet about 250 miles up.)Once in orbit, SpaceX will use the satellites to test communications with a number of ground stations, including mobile vans and stationary sites, according to the latest FCC documents. The list of locations includes the offices of Musk's electric car company, Tesla, which sells internet-connected vehicles:<ul><li>SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California</li><li>Tesla Motors Headquarters in Fremont, California</li><li>SpaceX Test Center in McGregor, Texas</li><li>SpaceX Brownsville in Brownsville, Texas</li><li>SpaceX Redmond in Redmond, Washington</li><li>SpaceX Brewster in Brewster, Washington</li><li>Three mobile "test vans"</li></ul>SpaceX's latest FCC filings also indicate that the company is "working with partners" in Brewster, Washington; Cordoba Argentina; Tromsø, Norway; and Awarua, New Zealand, for its broadband network test.According to a June 2015 story in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/spacex-founder-files-with-government-to-provide-internet-service-from-space/2015/06/09/db8d8d02-0eb7-11e5-a0dc-2b6f404ff5cf_story.html">The Washington Post</a>, Google and Fidelity invested $1 billion into Musk's company, in part to support the project. So it's a good guess that if and when the network becomes functional, those companies would partly assume control of it. (Google parent company, Alphabet, is also working on its own effort to beam internet connectivity from the skies using satellites, balloons, and drones.)SpaceX is not alone in its quest to dominate global high-speed internet from space, though - a company called <a href="http://www.oneweb.world/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">OneWeb</a> is pushing to have a similar plan approved. According <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2018/spacex-gets-set-launch-first-prototype-starlink-satellites-global-internet-access/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to Geekwire</a>, OneWeb has reportedly built up alliances with Jeff Bezos' up-and-coming aerospace company, Blue Origin, as well as Virgin Orbit and Arianespace.Get the latest Tesla stock price<a href="http://markets.businessinsider.com/stock/TSLA-Quote"> here.</a> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/spacecraft-cemetery-pacific-ocean-dead-satellites-2017-10">There's a place at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean where hundreds of giant spacecraft go to die</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Elon Musk's SpaceX is about to launch the first of 11,925 internet satellites - more than all spacecraft that orbit Earth today

<ul><li>The world will witness the total <keyword id="6699518" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="solar-eclipse">solar eclipse</keyword> of the year — but India will not be able to view it. </li><li>The total solar eclipse will be visible in South Pacific region and some parts of South America, but not in Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal. </li><li>As per the Indian Standard Time (IST), the eclipse will begin at 10:25 p.m. tomorrow, on 2 July and will last for four minutes and 33 seconds.</li></ul>The world will be gazing at the '<a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/science/total-solar-eclipse-on-july-2-here-is-everything-you-need-to-know-5806647/">total solar eclipse</a>’ (surya grahan) of the year on 2 July — but India will not be able to enjoy it. The eclipse will be visible in South Pacific region and some parts of South America, according to The Weather Channel. As per the Indian Standard Time (IST), the eclipse will begin at 10:25 PM on Tuesday (2 July) and will last for four minutes and 33 seconds. However, it will last twice as long as the previous total solar eclipse in August 2017, at two minutes and 40 seconds. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) will live stream the images and coverings of the total solar eclipse this year, NewsNation<a href="https://www.newsnation.in/science-news/total-solar-eclipse-on-tuesday-july-2-when-and-where-to-watch-great-south-american-celestial-event-article-229085.html"> reported</a>. While the solar eclipse’s umbra will shadow the Earth for 161 minutes, it will make a second landfall in the last four minutes. The eclipse occur during the night according to Indian time, which is why Indians will miss it. The eclipse will <a href="https://www.space.com/total-solar-eclipse-2019-photos.html">traverse</a> 6,000 miles, over parts of Chile, Argentina and South-Pacific region, but will not be visible from Asian countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal among others. Total solar eclipse, which occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth forms a path of totality with the Moon blocking the Sun rays from stretching to the Earth. The next total solar eclipse will happen in December 2020, next year. The last eclipse occurred in August 2017. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/isro-india-plans-launch-of-hyperspectral-imaging-satellite-hysis-on-thursday/articleshow/66811381.cms">India’s space agency is planning a massive launch of over 30 satellites this week, including one capable of ‘hyperspectral’ imaging</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/worlds-only-lunar-eclipse-in-2019-will-not-be-visible-from-india/articleshow/67618978.cms">Indians waiting for lunar eclipse will miss the blood moon</a>

The only total solar eclipse in 2019 will take place today

Rich Pedroncelli/APGov. Jerry Brown of California discussed climate change at a news conference in Sacramento, California in June 2017.On July 6, California Gov. Jerry Brown will announce that San Francisco will hold its own global climate action summit in September 2018 - with or without President Trump.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/climate/jerry-brown-california-climate-summit.html">According to</a> The New York Times, Brown plans to issue a global invitation via a video address at <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/global-citizen-festival-hamburg-livestream/">a festival</a> in Hamburg, Germany. A preview of the video was obtained by the Times."Look, it's up to you and it's up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization and join together to combat the existential threat of climate change," Brown will say in the address. He will also invite "the whole world" to attend the summit, including "entrepreneurs, musicians, mathematicians, and professors."The festival where his video will be shown was organized by the nonprofit <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/">Global Citizen</a>. It will feature big-name music acts like Coldplay and Shakira, as well as leaders like Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Argentina's President Mauricio Macri. <a href="https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/hamburg-festival-new-headliners/">Thousands</a> are expected to attend the event, which is meant to pressure governments to address poverty and inequality.Brown's summit announcement will come about a month after Trump vowed to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The accord, which includes nearly 200 countries, aims to curb greenhouse-gas emissions and support clean energy projects.In response to the president's decision, over 100 mayors, governors, scientists, university presidents, and local leaders have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-paris-agreement-coalition-2017-6">vowed</a> to uphold the US' Paris Agreement goals. The California summit would be part of a larger effort to support the United Nations' climate change negotiations in the US."Yes, I know President Trump is trying to get out of the Paris agreement, but he doesn't speak for the rest of America," Brown will say in the video. "We in California and in states all across America believe it's time to act." <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jerry-brown-california-donald-trump-climate-change-satellite-nasa-climate-change-2016-12">California governor: 'If Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite'</a></h3> Please enable Javascript to watch this video

California's governor is ramping up his battle with Trump by inviting 'the whole world' to a climate summit

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Workers at Venezuelan state <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="news">news</keyword> outlet teleSUR English, headquartered in Quito, Ecuador, have not been paid for months, according to internal chats obtained by Insider.</li><li>The government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro does not want to lose the outlet, considering it a key component in its propaganda war against its internal opposition and the Trump administration.</li><li>The news outlet is replacing employees with undergraduate students in Cuba, who are far cheaper to employ and file their English-language stories remotely.</li><li>Remaining employees are demoralized and fear they will never see another paycheck. "All of this from a 'socialist' news network," one worker told Business Insider.</li></ul>Employees at the English-language arm of <keyword id="2723" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Venezuela">Venezuela</keyword>'s state-run media operation have been working without compensation for months, according to two people there, with the network slowly replacing staff in its Ecuador office with students in Cuba who do their work remotely, for a fraction of the cost.But that's not because the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro no longer cares about the operation: a pariah in much of the region, Caracas is in fact desperate to hold on to the prestige of a foreign bureau seen as an essential service in a 21st-century information war.Launched in 2005 as a Spanish-language broadcast and online news outlet, teleSUR was the brainchild of former Venezuelan President <keyword id="49517" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="hugo-chavez">Hugo Chavez</keyword>, who was seeking to counter hostile media coverage of the South American nation and its avowedly socialist government. The English-language version launched in 2014, a year after Chavez's death, "part of a geopolitical and communication strategy in the field of global information," as network president Patricia Villegas, whose husband is a high-ranking official in the Maduro government, said in a press release.Maduro's opponents, in Washington and elsewhere, see it as little more than a propaganda operation — and have it in their crosshairs. Earlier this year, Eliot Abrams, US Special Representative for Venezuela, told reporters that the US government was "<a href="https://translations.state.gov/2020/02/19/special-briefing-via-telephone-with-elliot-abrams-special-representative-for-venezuela/">taking a careful look at teleSUR</a>.""We are looking very carefully at it because we have had many reports that teleSUR is not actually a news source," he said at a February State Department briefing. "It tends to reflect only the views of a government rather than actually being an independent news source."Juan Guaidó, the disputed head of Venezuela's National Assembly, its last democratically elected body — and recognized by the US and some 50 other nations as the country's legitimate head of state — has likewise characterized the network as an arm of Venezuela's ruling party."From its creation, teleSUR has been used to promote the destabilization of the region, back terrorist groups, threaten democracy, lie about Venezuela, and defend the Maduro dictatorship," <a href="https://twitter.com/jguaido/status/1216529267842076674">he tweeted</a> in January 2020.Internally, if in different language, that's how Caracas views the network too: as the last best chance for the Maduro government to defend itself and its allies before the English-speaking world."They can't lose Quito," <a href="https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2016/12/13/nota/5952304/mujer-acusa-maltrato-director-diario-oficial">Orlando Pérez</a>, head of operations at teleSUR English, recently told staff. Pérez, who ran Ecuador's state-run El Telégrafo newspaper under former leftist President Rafael Correa, was speaking to the motivations of the Maduro government."For them, this is a political issue," said one editor at teleSUR, speaking in a group WhatsApp message obtained by Business Insider."They don't care about articles or quality but about keeping face internationally," they said. "Losing a foreign office would mean they are losing the war."TeleSUR was launched in 2005 as a Spanish-language broadcast and online news outlet, the brainchild of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The stated intent was to counter hostile media coverage of the South American nation and its avowedly socialist government: when the English-language version launched in 2014, a year after Chavez's death from cancer, network president Patricia Villegas, whose husband is a high-ranking official in the government of <keyword id="969564" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nicolas-Maduro">Nicolas Maduro</keyword>, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190331222542/https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/telesur-english-lands-in-the-usa-268483932.html">described the platform as</a> "part of a geopolitical and communication strategy in the field of global information."Villegas did not respond to a request for comment.<div type="image" title="AP_99042717971" height="1347" width="1796" msid="76396321" hostid="261"></div><h2>Unfulfilled promise</h2>In the eyes of some on the left, the Trump administration and the Venezuelan opposition are lamentably right about teleSUR."Venezuela had the opportunity to create something like Al-Jazeera: a state-owned outlet with some independence that provides a much-needed regional perspective," Geoff Ramsey, director of the Venezuela program at the Washington Office on Latin America, a center-left think tank, told Insider.Indeed, "in the early days, many progressive journalists flocked to work at teleSUR with this hope," Ramsey said, "only to watch in dismay as it became clear it would primarily be a propaganda organ for the Bolivarian project."Initially, the network at least appeared to be more than just a vehicle for one state's press releases. Upon its founding, teleSUR was backed by other members of the region's mid-2000s leftist "Pink Tide," including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Uruguay. And the English-language version was set up in Ecuador, in part to create the impression that it was more "BBC" than "Press TV," the Iranian state news channel.The Ecuadorian capital, and its dollar-based economy, was also a more attractive destination for foreign talent than Venezuela, which by that point was already facing economic collapse. That talent is almost all gone (this reporter worked for the company from 2015 to 2016). Caracas, thanks to economic mismanagement compounded by sanctions from the Trump administration, simply cannot afford it. Because of the <keyword id="6451308" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="labor">labor</keyword> laws in Ecuador, however, teleSUR has not been able to lay its workers off — if it did, it would also owe them three months' severance. Instead, it stopped paying their salaries.<div type="image" title="AP_100921019632" height="1667" width="2223" msid="76396323" hostid="261"></div>"As the months passed, many were not able to afford rent or food," an employee at teleSUR told Insider, requesting anonymity due to fear of retaliation. With back wages piling up, the company offered the remaining staff $200 a month, paid in fits and starts. "To me and many coworkers, this is what teleSUR was really telling us: You either work with us, with hopes of getting some of the money we owe you, or you leave and can say 'bye bye' to everything.""All of this from a 'socialist' news network," they commented.Many have chosen to bid the company adieu, leaving Ecuador and effectively forfeiting a chance to get what they were owed. In their place, the company has leaned on students in Cuba, one of Venezuela's last allies, who are paid pennies on the dollar to effectively run teleSUR's Spanish-language content through Google Translate, according to WhatsApp messages from editors that were shared with Business Insider. However, even some of those students have quit over pay and a lack of work-life balance, according to the chats, having agreed to work three days a week but now expected to work five.Some workers have suggested that teleSUR could pay off the debt owed its more experienced workers by selling its office — prime real estate in a modern business district next to Parque Carolina, the Ecuadorian capital's answer to New York's Central Park. Most of its floors lie empty, a testament to dreams unfulfilled, and an array of expensive satellite equipment is stationed on its roof.The last thing Caracas wants is to cede territory in what is now hostile land; Ecuador's current president, Lenín Moreno, having reversed his predecessor's foreign policy and generally aligning his government with Washington."Caracas will do anything to save face, keeping up the production of news — no matter the quality — to present Venezuela as the government wants the world to see it," the source said.Ramsey, the analyst at WOLA, concurs."Losing teleSUR would demonstrate not just how much Venezuela has fallen since the boom years," he said, "but how much the revolution has fallen short of its promises."Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com

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