Comment by JoeAltmaier
15 days ago
Sounds like tracking would help. If the re-entry is controlled, why not broadcast transponder info from the reentering parts so they appear on airplane displays? Then they can adjust course, just as they do any other aircraft in their flight path.
The south indian ocean is the re-entry site for the 2nd stage of their next starship flight test, which will (should) re-enter in one piece so the risk of falling debris is certainly not trivial and unfortunately the size of the hazard region is also not trivial.
They've rescheduled a few times now and each time operators flying in this region have to shuffle things around.
They're also going to deploy several fake starlink sats which will re-enter in the same area but with no control AFICT so those will cover more area.
Are they maybe small enough to disintegrate before reaching human altitudes?
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My point exactly. Airplanes are big too, and there are existing procedures to avoid collision with marked objects in the sky e.g. other planes.
By listening to the transponder messages which give altitude, GPS location, velocity and call sign you can 'see' the stage as it moves through the air like any other vehicle traffic.
Plasmas are going to block the signals for at least some of the phases.
Yes and also, these parts are not made for pristine reentry, it's very likely they'll split up in different parts. How do you make sure every part has a transponder and it doesn't burn up?
Last launch had no blackout period, why would this one?
Transponder signals don't get transmitted on starlink, which transmits in the shadow of the plasma, towards space.
> why not broadcast transponder info
Do rockets broadcast ADS-B?
Trad terrestrial ADS-B: https://www.flightaware.com/adsb/
Space-based ADS-B: https://aireon.com/its-just-ads-b/
They do if they install one.
Kinda hard to do now
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