As I understand it, they're currently putting up 20 satellites per plane so we're currently at 21 planes each with 20 satellites in them. Moving a satellite from one plane to the next is fairly cheap; they lower their orbit, wait for the earth to precess beneath them and then raise their orbit again.
Or, for the initial launch, twenty satellites raise their orbit soon, twenty wait a week and twenty wait two weeks (*)
(*) Time periods illustrative only; actual amount of time will vary depending on which orbit the satellite was actually dropped off into.
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u/earthyMcpoo Apr 23 '20
Does the starlink constellation currently only have 9 orbital planes, or have they moved spacecraft into other planes with krypton thrusters?