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A render of a group of Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth. Image: Mark Handley / YouTube
Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Starlink satellite Internet service. (SpaceX) will soon provide Internet connectivity to space travelers and astronauts, according to company chief Mr. Elon Musk. Starlink is currently in its beta testing phase, which could end soon if Musk’s comments bear fruit, as the executive also believes the service will be ready for operational service next month. The executive’s latest comments on its internet service come as Starlink seeks to ramp up production of user terminals and aggressively develop the second part of the first phase of its constellation of internet satellites.
Starlink will use laser and non-laser satellites to provide spacecraft with internet connectivity
After putting more than a thousand spacecraft into orbit in the first half of this year, Starlink is now moving forward to deploy improved spacecraft, which will significantly reduce the need to use earth stations to transfer data. users to and from Internet servers. The network currently relies on user terminals to transfer user data to satellites and then transmit it to ground stations to complete the connection.
The new satellites will have optical connectivity, also known as lasers, as SpaceX launched the first batch of the new spacecraft earlier this month with the Falcon 9 rocket. Now, based on comments Musk made last night, Starlink will use these. and older spacecraft to provide astronauts and other space travelers with Internet connectivity as they ascend the Earth’s atmosphere.
His comments came after the crew aboard SpaceX’s first private crewed space mission shared their meal itinerary, with Musk promising to provide a “stove” and “free wifi” next time around. He then clarified that Starlink would provide the Internet to future space travelers.
According to him:
Yes. We would use our Ka parabolas or our laser links for Dragon, Starship or other spaceships as soon as they were above cloud level.
An image of the new Starlink satellites with laser connectivity that SpaceX launched earlier this month. Image: SpaceX / YouTube
According to details shared by Musk and SpaceX President Ms. Gywnne Shotwell, all future satellites launched will feature optical communications. Starlink first tested the new satellites in the second half of last year and launched its first batch of laser-equipped spacecraft earlier this year.
Yesterday’s comments aren’t the first time Musk has mentioned the new spacecraft. Earlier this month, the executive shared the benefits of using the new satellites, explaining that they will allow Starlink to transfer data at speeds close to the speed of light between satellites.
Yesterday, Musk also said that Starlink will exit its beta testing phase next month. This timeline comes as a large chunk of users who have placed their pre-orders for the service, and its equipment continues to wait for deliveries.
SpaceX CFO Bret Johnsen said his company currently manufactures 5,000 user terminals per month. The latest information from Starlink suggests it has received around half a million pre-orders, of which about a fifth have coverage to date. Johnsen also detailed a new satellite terminal that is cheaper and faster to manufacture than its predecessor, hoping this will allow SpaceX to significantly increase production of the terminals.
SpaceX intends to use Starlink to provide connectivity to astronauts leaving Earth and potential travelers to Mars. These details, and more, were shared by Ms Shotwell during a conference with Time Magazine last year when she said:
Patrick therefore had many reasons to get into telecommunications. Businesses always want growth and that was a good growth opportunity for us, but there are other reasons as well. A broadband constellation in low earth orbit has never been successful. We always take huge, visionary goals. And it was a goal worth achieving. No one has succeeded yet, in fact Elon is still talking about [how] this trade is littered with corpses, companies that have not. So it was a challenge for us to go and do it.
So that was one of the reasons. The second reason was that once we get people to Mars, they will need the ability to communicate. In fact, I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars. And then of course you have to connect the two planets as well, so we have to make sure we have robust telecommunications between Mars and back to Earth.
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