[ad_1]
Elon Musk’s companies have had their fair share of ups and downs in the public eye, but SpaceX may have recently taken the lion’s share of goodwill through a series of successful launches and tests of his rockets and his crew capsule. It was also the most recent recipient of sharp criticism for its Starlink satellites photobombing comet NEOWISE. Its controversial presence in Earth’s skies, however, could be worth it if these numbers using Ookla’s popular Speedtest are anything to say.
To be clear, none of the anonymized test results on Ookla’s website even come close to Musk’s promise of gigabit internet and less than 20ms latency from his constellation of Starlink satellites. The fastest download speed was recorded at 60 Mbps, while downloads reached 17.70 Mbps. Latency, on the other hand, ranged from 31 to 94 ms.
However, it should be taken into account that there are currently only 600 Starlink satellites in low earth orbit or LEO, or about 570 km at the highest peak. SpaceX was cleared to launch 12,000 satellites, in which case the constellation would largely be fully operational to deliver the speeds promised. Or at least that’s the theory.
Even the lowest 11 Mbps these Speedtest results show are already enough to wow internet users capped at 1 Mbps or even slower. SpaceX’s goal is to make broadband internet available even and especially to areas where DSL, cable, fiber, or even geostationary satellites are unable to reach. For these areas, 11 Mbps would already be Internet heaven.
Of course, Starlink’s promise is not without a price, as astrophotographs of the night sky already attest. The presence of 600 satellites is already proving controversial for the astronomical community, and even less when a fleet of 12,000 men is already in full force orbiting our planet.
[ad_2]
Source link