Comment by Gravityloss
1 year ago
Partially! There are also ascending and descending satellites meeting. Ascending and descending doesn't mean altitude but in a "2D view" sense. See https://www.heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx
1 year ago
Partially! There are also ascending and descending satellites meeting. Ascending and descending doesn't mean altitude but in a "2D view" sense. See https://www.heavens-above.com/StarLink.aspx
Thanks, this is an important point. I missed the fact that Starlink's orbital planes actually cover the full 360° of RAAN[0], not just 180° like Iridium did (presumably to minimize the number of satellites).
So actually this Iridium-type "seam" disappears, meaning that every satellite should always have co-orbiting "neighbors" on both sides. Cool!
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_ascension_of_the_ascendi...