The photo is of Shackleton's ship "Endurance" as the explorer attempted to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic more than a century ago. But Shackleton is also the name of a crater on the moon's surface. And it's not just any crater. NASA named the crater for the famed explorer in 2006 due to its potential as a lunar outpost. Located at the moon's south pole, the Shackleton crater is believed by many to have deposits of frozen water.

LinkSpace's reusable rocket RLV-T5, also known as NewLine Baby, returns to the landing site during a test launch on a vacant plot of land near the company's development site in Longkou, Shandong province, China, on April 19, 2019. The 1.5-ton rocket hovered 40 meters above the ground before descending back to its concrete launchpad after 30 seconds. LinkSpace, one of China's 15-plus private rocket manufacturers, sees these short hops as the first steps toward a new business model: sending tiny, inexpensive satellites into orbit at affordable prices. #
Jason Lee / Reuters

Blue Origin appears to be preparing for another New Shepard suborbital flight from its West Texas launch site; NOTAM closes airspace starting Thursday morning, through Sunday. http://bit.ly/2ZN2oOJ

Gerst: in a best-case schedule, can launch EM-1 in late 2020. More likely some time in 2021.

Gerst: still expect to fly EM-2 (first crewed SLS/Orion mission) in 2022. EM-3 would be for the lunar landing to meet 2024 goal.

Gerst: expect to make a selection of a Power and Propulsion Element for Gateway “some time fairly soon”. That and a small docking/hab module all that’s needed for 2024 landing.

Gerst is asked what is role of Gateway in the architecture. Says it’s useful place to aggregate hardware, and serves as a safe haven for crews.

Q: what about surface suits? Gerst: for 2024, going to be pretty spartan. Looking for the minimum needed for the mission.

Gerst: we’re in the process of building a plan, and it fits on paper. But it will not be easy, and not risk-free.

Q: can you give me the probability of success for a 2024 lunar landing? Gerst: I don’t give you percentages.

What do we know about the satellites?
 
    386 kg (850lbs) each from the FCC application
    1.1 m × 0.7 m × 0.7 m. There are two 2 m × 8 m solar panels. (Dimensions based on Tintin A & B)
    The attitude of each spacecraft is 3-axis stabilized, and is dynamically controlled over each orbit to maintain attitude position for two pointing modes of operation
    Will include satellite photography services and remote sensing services or aerial surveying
    5 year lifespan
    Planned controlled de-orbit at end of life
    Expected to be mass produced in house at SpaceX facilities in Redmond and Brewster, Washington
    83 orbital planes 1,110km to 1,325km (700 miles)
    1,600 Initial deployment. 2825 Final Deployment. Commercial broadband service starts after launching the first 800 Satellites
 
Phase two planned 7,518 satellites in VLEO (Very-Low-Earth Orbit) NGSO (Non-Geostationary Satellite Orbit) Constellation at about 322km up (200 miles) to increase overall bandwidth in populated areas and better ping times.
What is the Bandwidth of the entire system?Total available bandwidth after 12,000 satellites are in operation would be 12k*20 = 240,000 Gbps. It should be noted though that total bandwidth of the system is totally irrelevant.

It’s launch day. We are still targeting 8:30 am CDT / 13:30 UTC for liftoff. Webcast starts at T-20 minutes on http://www.blueorigin.com . Read about the launch in our blog and follow Twitter for updates http://bit.ly/2ITBhfK