@thesheetztweetz FCC is fair & sensible. NHTSA & FAA too. 99.9% of the time, I agree with regulators! On rare occasions, we disagree. This is almost always due to new technologies that past regulations didn't anticipate.
So I guess we're going to find out whether putting 4,400 satellites in a 30-km shell betewen 540 and 570 km is a good idea or not https://spacenews.com/...
1/ “Under the FCC approval, the size of the Starlink constellation will decrease by one satellite, from 4,409 to 4,408.” https://spacenews.com/... I have a lot of work to do to revise my system capacity model to reflect one fewer satellite. I'll be up late tonight for sure.
The lower orbits are some good news for astronomical impact, reducing the time that those satellites remain illuminated after sunset. https://twitter.com/...