The scope of damage to Ukraine’s infrastructure has expanded, and the role of the Starlink network will gradually become more important

Since the four weeks of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the battle situation has been in a stalemate. As the Russian artillery continued to bomb the front-line cities of Ukraine and the capital Kyiv, the damage to infrastructure such as the network has expanded. Therefore, the Ukrainian army is expected to rely more and more on SpaceX’s Starlink network. .

Since the outbreak of the Crimea crisis in 2014, a group of remote-controlled aircraft enthusiasts and volunteers with engineer backgrounds in Ukraine have formed a reconnaissance team to join the conflict in the Donbas region. They used their own expertise and made their own detectors. It also refitted small commercial drones to assist the Ukrainian army in reconnaissance, and also installed camera systems at commanding heights throughout the town, making a significant contribution to the Ukrainian army’s intelligence.

This volunteer team was later added to the regular army system by the Ukrainian government and named “Aerorozvidka”. It is equipped with PD-1 and PD-2 military drones developed by Ukraine’s UKRSPEC Systems. In recent years, it has been associated with NATO and the United States many times. Teams train and practice together.

However, after the attack was blocked, the Russian army began to bomb the infrastructure of front-line cities such as Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, and Mariupo with artillery units for a long time. Therefore, two weeks ago Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov ) asked SpaceX CEO Elon Musk for help on Twitter, and Musk immediately delivered Starlink equipment to Ukraine within a week.

Therefore, the Ukrainian military aviation reconnaissance team can now maintain smooth connections with Kyiv, the frontline headquarters, and drones through Starlink, even in a field environment lacking network connections. In addition to reconnaissance, it can also guide at any time. Artillery units, or strapped to artillery shells to attack Russian targets.

The Ukrainian military aviation reconnaissance team uses the UAV operating system code-named “Delta”. It is generally believed that this system is directly assisted by NATO to develop, and can be directly connected to the US and European reconnaissance systems, and then used with Starlink to make up for the damage to the basic network facilities. The connection ability of the Ukrainian army has made the Ukrainian army more worry-free in reconnaissance and guidance.

Russia is quite angry about Musk’s support. Dmitry Rogozin, director of Russian aerospace (Roscosmos), said that this is proof that Russia should never trust the West. Musk has repeatedly claimed that his technology is purely for civilian use, but when Russia is in the When safeguarding his core interests, he chose to take sides.

With the assistance of Starlink and the “Switchblade” suicide drone that the U.S. military will deliver in the near future, the Ukrainian air reconnaissance team will be able to significantly increase its attack capabilities.

Admiral James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Command, also told Congress recently that Starlink’s performance in the Ukrainian battlefield shows the importance of low-orbit satellite constellations in future wars, and the U.S. military will speed up research on the use of related tactics .

SpaceX launches 12th mission this year, breaking Falcon rocket’s heaviest payload record to date

After a delay of about 90 minutes due to weather factors, the SpaceX starlink Group 4-12 mission with 53 new satellites was successfully launched at 12:42 a.m. EDT on March 19. The company completed its 12th rocket launch and launch this year. The total number of Starlink satellites exceeds 2,300. In addition, the launch broke the record for the heaviest payload carried by a Falcon 9 rocket to date.

Since the Starlink Group 4-5 mission in January this year, SpaceX rockets have been taking a dogleg trajectory to the southeast to avoid unfavorable winter weather conditions for launches in the North Atlantic. However, with the return of spring, SpaceX will return to the northeast orbit used for the Starlink Shell 4 orbital surface launch since the Group 4-12 mission.

On March 19, ET, the B1051 Falcon 9 rocket arrived at the SLC-40 launch pad at Cape Canavera Space Force Station, and then lifted off smoothly at around 12:42 a.m. ET. About 9 minutes later, the first stage of the B1051 rocket was successfully recovered, which is also the successful completion of 12 orbital-level launches and recovery of the booster since its debut in the unmanned test flight Demo-1 mission of the manned Dragon spacecraft on March 2, 2019. , arguably the current leader of the Falcon 9 rocket fleet.

However, the B1051 model has a turnover of about 100 days between launches, while the newer B1058 and B1060 model boosters are only 50 to 55 days apart between launches. That is to say, the B1058 and B1060 are reused the fastest possible It will surpass the B1051 in May or June this year, and may have completed their 15th, 16th or even 17th takeoffs by the end of the year.

More than an hour after the launch, all 53 Starlink V1.5 satellites were sent into orbits about 320 kilometers above the ground, and will be slowly raised to working orbits in the next few months. As of now, SpaceX has launched 2,335 Starlink satellites, 2,112 satellites are in orbit, 1,575 have been positioned in working orbits, and 450 are entering working orbits.

The Starlink 4-12 mission is also the heaviest payload ever launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, at 16.25 metric tons.

As for the Ax-1 private space mission originally scheduled at the end of March, it will be postponed from March 30 to April 3; the Crew-4 mission carrying four NASA and ESA astronauts will be postponed from April 15 to April 4 19th of May.

Musk’s second batch of aid was sent to Ukraine, and more antennas and power storage devices arrived on the battlefield

Musk’s enthusiasm for the Ukrainian war seems to be as good as Putin’s. A new batch of material aid was sent to Ukraine today, including more satellite dishes and Tesla Powerwalls, and even more rewards for Ukrainian employees to return home to fight for the country.

After the outbreak of the Ukraine war, Elon Musk responded to the request of the Vice President of Ukraine and sent a batch of Starlink satellite antennas to Ukraine to avoid being cut off. Now the second batch of supplies has arrived in Hong Kong. In addition to more Starlink antennas, there are also New good stuff.

Musk’s second wave of gifts includes car cigarette lighter adapters, solar power generation and power storage packs, as well as the extremely expensive Tesla Powerwall, which Musk sent is a whole set of Tesla smart home power luxury Bag.

Tesla Powerwall is a smart power storage device, each set can store 13.5 kWh of electricity, and a maximum of ten sets can be connected in series. With the addition of a solar power generation device, even if the power supply is not as good as the area, it can also generate electricity and store it during the day and supply it to households or other equipment.

“Thank you to all the Berlin factory and German service center teams for preparing all relevant equipment and supporting measures within 3 days.” Tesla’s letter to employees said that the volunteer team not only prepared these equipment, including transformers and required cables, but also It was dispatched by the factory in Berlin and sent to Ukraine as soon as possible, and also comes with certified installation services.

In addition, Tesla decided to issue additional war red envelopes. No matter where Tesla works, Ukrainian employees who want to return to their homeland to defend their hometown will unconditionally pay at least 3 months of full salary.

Tesla has previously opened all super charging stations in Ukraine for free use, and neighboring Poland and Slovakia also joined the free charging range, so that about 5,000 Tesla owners in Ukraine can take refuge or go to places they want to go without worry. Because of the opening of the Tesla overcharge agreement in Europe, non-Tesla electric car owners can also use this service.

Musk’s active support for Ukraine reminds people of the early days of SpaceX, when Russian aerospace scientists mocked him that if the rocket could return to the ground, just launch the rocket with a bounce bed. When SpaceX successfully recovered the rocket many years later, Musk did not forget to fight back with this sentence, asking Russian scientists to see his bouncing bed results.

Musk even intends to let SpaceX take over the operation of the International Space Station, which is currently dominated by Russia. It seems that this full-scale confrontation still has a long way to go.

Ukrainian Apocalypse: Starlink sees the significance of low-orbit satellites to the modern battlefield

“In the case of Ukraine, we have seen how amazing a satellite constellation can do.” James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Force, believes that low-orbit satellites prove the importance of modern warfare. But what has Starlink helped Ukraine, and what can Taiwan learn?

On February 26, 2022, the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the vice president of Ukraine asked Elon Musk on Twitter for help, hoping that Starlink would help Ukraine resist the Russian attack. A day later, Starlink began to provide Internet services in Ukraine, and ground signal receivers continued to be sent to Ukraine.

Starlink is a satellite network service provided by SpaceX, another company owned by Musk. As long as a ground satellite antenna is installed, you can get a network speed similar to that of Taiwan’s home optical fiber network. It sounds great, but what does this have to do with war? ?

Rather than a bunch of experts and media analysis coming from nowhere, it’s better to listen directly to General James Dickinson, the commander of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Space Force.

“We saw the capabilities of Musk and Starlink in Ukraine.” Dickinson believes that a large satellite constellation or this kind of diffused architecture can provide more fault tolerance and bandwidth traffic on the battlefield, so the US government is also thinking about how to reduce the civilian population during wartime. Orbital satellites into military use.

SpaceX has the world’s largest commercial satellite constellation, with nearly 2,000 satellites in orbit, 10,000 ready to launch, and hopes to increase to 30,000 in the future. This huge resource is coveted even by the US Space Force.

Not exciting but deadly information intelligence war
On the modern battlefield, the key to victory or defeat may be stealth fighter jets, hypersonic missiles or nuclear-powered submarines, but the core of everything is always revolving around “intelligence”, and the network connection is the most important way to transmit information. pipeline.

Therefore, if the network connection of the target can be cut off, it will provide a huge advantage for the attacker, which is also a possible development predicted by many experts before the Russian-Ukrainian war.

However, judging from the current battlefield, Russia has not cut off all network connections in Ukraine due to various considerations. Most areas can be connected normally. Only a few cities in eastern Ukraine cannot go smoothly because of their proximity to Russia. Internet. Starlink’s satellite service didn’t really play a huge role in this battle.

But the Starlink ground receiving station did manage to maintain a network connection on the battlefield, albeit only as a backup option, surprising the U.S. government. “We have established the CIC Commercial Satellite Signal Alliance, with 10 commercial satellite service operators, working closely with the U.S. government.” General Dickinson said that CIC was originally prepared to prevent space attacks, but now it has become a U.S. military during wartime. Internet and communication services you can rely on.

For a country of the size of Taiwan or Ukraine, it is not easy to completely cut off network communications, but even if all submarine cables are cut off, it is extremely important to be able to maintain external communication through low-orbit satellites. Throughout the war, Ukrainian officials and civilians continued to speak out, cracked the rumors that Kyiv had already been captured, and received assistance from all over the world, which shows the importance of external relations.

Musk sent antennas, angering the head of Russian aerospace
Although some countries and media keep ridiculing that low-orbit satellite communication is just a show, Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russian aerospace and former deputy prime minister of Russia, is very dissatisfied with Musk’s performance in providing Starlink. Space junk contaminates low-Earth orbit without thinking about the consequences.

“My conscience advises you to think about the consequences of doing so. The International Space Station is currently operated by Russia. What would happen if it fell on the earth?” Rogozin pointed out that only China, the United States, and Europe will fly over the International Space Station. , will not fly over Russia. The implication is that Musk should stop supporting Ukraine, otherwise they will let the International Space Station leave orbit and smash directly into the surface.

Judging from his attitude of launching the “Red Comet” operation, Starlink obviously made Russia very uncomfortable in this war. For Rogozin’s remarks, Musk returned a photo of SpaceX lightly.

Finally, a small detail that must be noted is that in addition to low-orbit satellites and user terminals, Starlink’s services also require large ground relay stations. Ukraine can obtain satellite networks because there is a large relay station in nearby Poland. If Taiwan wants to receive the Starlink network and maintain communication during the war, I am afraid that it will have to find a safe relay station.

4 rocket missions launched in 16 days, SpaceX live broadcast back to Russia: American broom takes off

SpaceX has once again successfully sent a new batch of 48 Starlink satellites into orbit. This is the company’s fourth Starlink satellite mission in 16 days. The frequency of rocket launches is amazing. Interestingly, in the last 43 seconds of the countdown to the launch, the director of SpaceX’s launch mission retorted that Russia satirized the fact that the United States flew to the sky with a broom a few days ago, and said in the live broadcast “American broom is taking off.”

At 8:45 a.m. Eastern Time on March 9th, the Starlink 4-10 mission carrying 48 Starlink satellites took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base. The B1052-4 Falcon 9 rocket also launched in a “dogleg” The “trajectory” flies to an orbit with an angle of 53.2 degrees from the equator in the southeast direction. All satellites are released to a height of 305 kilometers above the ground 1 hour and 5 minutes after the rocket takes off, and will be maneuvered to an orbit of 540 kilometers above the ground within a few months.

In the last 43 seconds of the countdown to the rocket launch, SpaceX rocket launch director Julia Black humorously instructed: “The American broom is ready to take off, this is the voice of freedom. Launch preparation.” A generous response to Dmitry Rogozin, the top head of Russian aerospace Roscosmos last week, choked the United States ” Let’s fly to the sky with a broom.” A war of words.

This is not the first time that SpaceX has quarreled with Dmitry Rogozin. After Russia occupied Crimea in 2014, because the United States could only rely on Russia’s Soyuz spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station, Dmitry Rogozin choked the United States on Twitter. : “Bounce people to the International Space Station with a spring bed.”

As a result, in 2020, SpaceX really relied on its own Dragon spacecraft to send astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time. After 9 years, the United States finally did not have to rely on Russia for manned space missions. Musk responded by tweeting: “The spring bed is working. “

The Group 4-10 mission was the last launch of the year from Florida to fly at this descent node, NASA spaceflight reported. The next Starlink mission, Starlink Group 4-12, will launch northeast at the ascending node.

The end of the mission represents SpaceX’s 2 rocket launches in just 6 days and 4 rocket launches in 16 days. It is also the 10th mission since January 1, maintaining an average weekly launch rhythm this year.

Starlink satellites have been launched 40 times. As of the Starlink 4-10 mission, SpaceX has launched 2,282 Starlink satellites. After deducting the failed ones, astrophysicist Jonathon McDowell said that 2,014 Starlink satellites are in orbit and 1,989 are working. SpaceX aims to fill the fourth orbital surface of the Starlink project by the end of this year (an estimated 1,584).

SpaceX expects to perform two more rocket launches in March, the B1051-12 rocket launch Starlink Group 4-12 mission in mid-March, and the Axiom-1 private space mission to the International Space Station on March 30.

Musk: The Model S with a 900-kilometer range was produced a year ago, but it was too useless

When it comes to the battery life of electric vehicles, many people think that the higher the better, but Musk said amazingly that they have already made electric vehicles with a battery life of more than 900 kilometers, but it is really useless.

The battery life of an electric car is the most concerned part for many people, especially those who have not bought an electric car. With the launch of Mercedes-Benz EQS with a battery life of more than 700 kilometers, the American startup Lucid Air even claims to have a battery life of 800 kilometers. It seems that it can gradually get rid of mileage anxiety. But electric car leader Tesla disagrees.

When asked by netizens about battery life, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed out that Tesla could actually make a Model S with a battery life of more than 960 kilometers a year ago, “But in my opinion, that will only lead to more battery life. Bad product”, Musk believes that 99.9% of the driving time, the owner is driving with a huge useless battery, which will only make acceleration, handling and efficiency worse.

At present, Tesla’s high-endurance vehicles have a range of more than 600 kilometers. Musk pointed out that most car owners can’t even use up 600 kilometers, and the extra battery will only make the energy consumption more ugly.

Musk’s point is that when the battery life exceeds 600 kilometers, does the owner need more battery life or better performance? This is reflected in the Lucid Air, which is evident in the fact that due to its extremely high battery life, most orders are pouring into the performance version rather than the long battery life version. Even if the range is reduced by 80~100 kilometers, the owner would rather switch to a model with about 100 horsepower more.

However, Musk didn’t say that when he promoted Tesla’s strongest sports car, Roadster 2. In addition to the zero-hundred acceleration of less than 2 seconds, another selling point is that the endurance is over a thousand. Isn’t Musk slapped?

The problem still has to go back to battery technology. If you simply use a year-old battery with an old model, it will indeed reduce the efficiency if the battery life exceeds 900 kilometers. However, Mercedes and Lucid have made breakthroughs in body aerodynamics, and battery technology seems to have hidden a secret. Even if the EQS battery capacity is only 7kWh more than Model S, the battery life is 100 kilometers longer. This is indeed a skill.

On the other hand, what Musk said is right. Although the EQS has better endurance than the Model S, the irony is that the price is more than NT$8 million. The EQS 53 AMG 4MATIC+, which emphasizes the performance orientation, adds the official zero-hundred acceleration time of the AMG Dynamic Plus kit. It also takes 3.4 seconds, but the battery life has dropped significantly to 586 kilometers. It can be seen that the choice between battery life and performance is not easy.

In other words, if a passionate car owner spends nearly 10 million to buy an AMG EQS 53 4MATIC+, and encounters a Model S Plaid that sells for less than 5 million yuan on the road, he will only be able to beat Tesla when parking, regardless of battery life, performance or Autopilot. opponent’s side.

SpaceX is going to launch 30,000 more Starlink satellites, and NASA has made a sound

In order to expand high-speed satellite network services, SpaceX’s second-generation Starlink plan is preparing to launch an additional 30,000 satellites. Obviously, NASA does not like this addition. Recently, NASA submitted a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), indicating that Starlink satellites will directly affect the observation of near-Earth asteroids tracked by Hubble and ground-based telescopes, as well as interfere with science and manned missions, although NASA is not against SpaceX’s plan. , but still called on the FCC to review applications more carefully.

In 2015, SpaceX proposed the Starlink project, which consists of 12,000 low-orbit satellites to form a giant satellite constellation. satellite into space. According to Elon Musk’s Jan. 16 tweet, there were 1,469 Starlink satellites in working condition at the time, with another 272 in orbit.

Obviously, Musk’s work plan will not be limited to 12,000 low-orbit satellites. In fact, SpaceX has submitted an application for the second-generation Starlink satellite Gen2 program to the FCC, and it is expected to launch another 30,000 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit, making the entire constellation satellites. The total is a staggering 42,000, and the FCC is also reviewing it.

But NASA frowned and spoke.

Significantly increases the risk of collision with other satellites
NASA is currently closely monitoring 25,000 space objects with the U.S. Department of Defense, and about 6,100 objects are within 600 kilometers of perigee, including the International Space Station, the Hubble Space Telescope, thousands of satellites, and debris that has accumulated after decades of launches Etc., however, the number of Starlink satellites in the Gen2 scheme has directly doubled, and NASA warns that this scale will only make the risk of collision events more dangerous.

Although SpaceX claims that the satellites have an automatic collision avoidance system, NASA holds a conservative opinion, believing that the sky will be so crowded that close encounters are inevitable. By June 2021 alone, Starlink satellites and other objects (including other Starlink satellites) ) has about 1,630 close (within 1 km) passing experience, and the automatic collision avoidance system lacks statistical basis; in December last year, the Chinese government also criticized 2 Starlink satellites for almost matching the 555-kilometer orbit. Chinese space station collided.

Affects a large number of astronomical observations
The Hubble Space Telescope orbits the earth at 535 kilometers above the ground. Currently, 8% of the composite images are destroyed by satellites, but the Gen2 plan will add 10,000 satellites orbiting the Earth on the top of the Hubble Space Telescope, and the destroyed Hubble Space Telescope will be composited at that time. The image scale may be more than doubled.

The observation field of satellites farther from the earth is directly interfered by all Starlink satellites. For example, meteorological satellites often use radio, radar and other instruments to monitor the earth’s climate, but the sunlight reflected by the Starlink satellites will cause the measurement results to be inaccurate.

Ground-based telescopes with horizon-to-horizon sightings, which must take advantage of the short “astronimical twilight” period to observe comets and near-Earth asteroids, suffer even more. NASA estimates that if 420 million Starlink satellites fill the sky, at least one Starlink satellite trail will greet astronomers in every survey image taken in defense of a dangerous asteroid impact.

Competitors are blocking Gen2 solutions
NASA did not ask the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application, but only emphasized that SpaceX must solve these problems, and hoped that the FCC could carefully deploy satellites on the premise of “considering aerospace safety and long-term use of the space environment”; at the same time, NASA also appreciated SpaceX’s efforts to solve the problem so far. Capabilities and partnerships also suggest that the launch of a large number of additional satellites requires expanded coordination and communication between the two parties to ensure the respective assets of SpaceX and NASA.

In addition, this is not the first time NASA has proposed a satellite constellation. In 2020, NASA expressed “strict concern” about the 243 SpaceMobile satellites that AST & Science hoped to put into orbit, and those satellites were not even on the ground. , but it is the first time that NASA has publicly opposed the communication satellite plan of a private company. The reason is that the satellite is too large and lacks experience in deploying large satellites in space. NASA is very afraid of its own satellite being smashed.

But other satellite companies that are not used to SpaceX are not so polite. Viasat asked the FCC to reject SpaceX’s application or put it on hold, Dish asked the FCC to partially reject or deny the application, EchoStar and Hughes called on the FCC to reject or suspend the review of SpaceX’s application, Amazon’s request that has often been at odds with SpaceX Adding emission restrictions, OneWeb also requires the FCC to impose additional conditions.

49 “Starlink” satellites encountered a geomagnetic storm, and 40 were damaged the day after launch

SpaceX said that as many as 40 of the 49 “Starlink” satellites it launched on the 3rd of this month were damaged the next day due to a geomagnetic storm. This is believed to be the largest damage to a satellite caused by a single geomagnetic storm.

【Rescue failed】

The official website of SpaceX released an update on the 8th saying that the company routinely launched 49 “Starlink” satellites to an orbit lower than the predetermined orbital altitude on the 3rd, and prepared to conduct preliminary testing on these satellites. into a predetermined orbit 210 kilometers above the ground.

“Unfortunately”, SpaceX said, a geomagnetic storm that occurred on the 4th severely affected the satellites, warming the atmosphere in the area where the satellites are located, increasing density and increasing atmospheric drag by up to 50 percent from previous launch levels .

The “Starlink” team then controlled the satellite to enter a safe flight mode, allowing the satellite to fly “sideways” to reduce atmospheric drag. However, most satellites have never been able to return to normal mode once they have gone into safe mode, so “up to 40 satellites will re-enter or have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere.”

SpaceX said the risk of a deorbiting satellite colliding with other satellites is “zero” and will burn up after re-entry, leaving no debris left in space or debris falling to the ground.

【Ignore the warning? 】

According to Reuters, before the launch of these “Starlink” satellites, the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center had predicted a possible geomagnetic storm. The center previously warned that a strong solar flare was detected on January 29, and the ejected material and energy may reach Earth as early as February 1, and the geomagnetic storm caused by it may last until February 3.

Flares are events in which a localized region of the Sun’s atmosphere suddenly brightens, accompanied by strongly enhanced electromagnetic radiation, solar proton events (large streams of high-energy charged particles), and coronal mass ejections. After the material and energy of these active jets reach the near-Earth space, they will strongly disturb the Earth’s magnetosphere, ionosphere and upper atmosphere, causing geomagnetic storms.

Jonathan McDowell, an expert at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, believes that the damage caused by the geomagnetic storm to the satellite this time is the largest single-scale damage, and it is also the first time that the increase in atmospheric density has caused large-scale damage to the satellite.

McDowell said it was unclear whether the increase in atmospheric drag caused by geomagnetic storms exceeded the limits of what the satellite was designed to withstand, or whether SpaceX mistakenly believed that the satellite could withstand such drag. He said that from what SpaceX said, they didn’t expect to have to deal with such atmospheric drag, “as if they didn’t pay attention to space weather forecasts.”

CNN quoted Bill Murta, program coordinator at the Center for Space Weather Prediction, as saying that people in charge of satellite launches usually pay close attention to space weather before launch, but different companies judge whether space weather affects the criteria for launching. different.

SpaceX has yet to respond to media inquiries about the company’s assessment of space weather prior to launch.

【Loss unknown】

The economic damage caused by the incident is unclear. SpaceX has not disclosed the cost of Starlink satellites. According to CNN, company president Gwen Shotwell said in 2019 that each satellite would cost well under $1 million.

According to Reuters, the “Starlink” project previously planned to launch 12,000 low-altitude orbit satellites into space between 2019 and 2024 to build a network to provide Internet services, and then increased the planned number to about 30,000.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, posted on social media on January 15 that the “Starlink” project has nearly 1,500 satellites in operation, and another 272 satellites are on their way to predetermined orbits.

Before the “Starlink” satellite reaches the predetermined orbit, it will undergo preliminary testing at a lower altitude. If there is a problem, it will re-enter the earth’s atmosphere under the operation of ground controllers and burn up in the process, so as not to interfere with other satellites. SpaceX said it’s rare for a satellite to reveal problems at this stage, and the step was arranged just in case.

Wafer shortage continues to hit auto production, STF says production capacity sold out this year

U.S. media outlet Automotive News reported today that forecaster AutoForecast Solutions (AFS) has reported that global vehicle production is expected to shrink by about 370,500 units this year due to a chip shortage, a 61 percent jump from the 230,700 unit reduction a week ago.

The chip shortage has led to the cancellation of an additional 91,600 units of production at European vehicle assembly plants. AFS currently estimates that the chip shortage will result in a shortfall of more than 1 million units in global vehicle production in 2022.

STMicroelectronics N.V. CEO Jean-Marc Chery announced on Jan. 27 that ST’s capital expenditures for 2022 are estimated to be between $3.4 billion and $3.6 billion to further expand its chip production capacity. Last year’s revenue increased 24.9% to US$12.76 billion, and this year’s revenue is estimated to be between US$14.8 billion and US$15.3 billion, equivalent to an annual increase of 16% to 20%.

In Q4 2021, ST’s Automotive Products and Discrete Components Group (ADG) revenue increased 28.6% QoQ or 22.0% QoQ to US$1.226 billion, while revenue increased 130% QoQ or 100% QoQ to US$216 million, with a 17.6% yield jump from 9.9% a year ago.

ST Microcontroller and Digital IC Group (MDG) reported revenue growth of 23.7% QoQ and 15.4% QoQ to US$1.062 billion in the fourth quarter, and revenue growth of 82.8% QoQ and 44.5% QoQ to US$318 million.

STMicroelectronics: Automotive chip capacity sold out this year
Chery said on Jan. 27 in an earnings call that the current backlog of orders has a visibility of about 18 months, much higher than ST’s current and planned 2022 production capacity. Europe eeNews reported on January 27, Chery said on the same day, electrification transformation is accelerating at an unexpected speed, this year’s automotive chip capacity sales an empty.

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk said in an earnings call on Jan. 26 that the wafer shortage will be better than last year, but will still limit all factory output.

Musk said the shortage of chips is expected to be alleviated by the end of this year and early next year. STMicroelectronics is one of Tesla’s chip suppliers.

Learn about GameStop’s epic short squeeze in 3 minutes, and American netizens brought down the Wall Street crocodile

Shares of video game retailer GameStop and others soared last January. The U.S. staged netizens crushing hedge funds, causing heated discussions around the world. With the exposure of one of the key figures behind the counterattack, the follow-up development is still worthy of attention.

The BBC notes that GameStop is an American video game retailer. In the age of online streaming, GameStop still specializes in physical video games. Its business performance has struggled to keep up with the times, with a loss of $795 million in 2019.

But GameStop’s stock skyrocketed in a matter of days. The reason is that some retail investors used the Reddit forum to initiate the purchase of GameStop stock, which caused the stock price to rise. They intend to sabotage these attempts to short the GameStop Investment Fund. As a result, some hedge fund firms have been forced to buy back shares before they peaked, with one firm, Melvin Capital, reportedly spending $2 billion to cover losses.

In addition to Reddit, Elon Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla, also tweeted his solidarity with a link to the Reddit discussion forum, adding fuel to the incident.

Shares of GameStop surged 135% on Jan. 27, The Wall Street Journal reported. At one point it reached a record high of $347.51 per share. Although it fell back later, with the support of retail investors, the stock price returned to $325, and the monthly line soared 16 times. GameStop is trading at just around $18 in early 2021.

Others, such as AMC, the leading global theater chain that once fell into bankruptcy, also saw their stock prices skyrocket under this wave of retail investors’ counterattacks. AMC’s share price rose more than 5 times in a single month, and American retail investors joined together on online forums such as Reddit. Accumulated buying has completely repulsed the short sellers.

After a number of hedge funds suffered huge losses from shorting GameStop, popular brokerages including Robin Hood took measures to cool the market, but the move sparked investor dissatisfaction and lawsuits.