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WASHINGTON – The first Starlink satellites to launch into polar orbit feature laser cross-links, a technology the company plans to add to other satellites next year.
SpaceX included 10 Starlink satellites on its Transporter-1 dedicated rideshare launch on January 24. These satellites are the first in the Starlink constellation that SpaceX has deployed to polar orbit, after winning the Federal Communications Commission to do so on January 8.
In post-launch tweets, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, said the satellites were equipped with inter-satellite laser links. “These also have laser links between the satellites, so no ground station is needed above the poles,” he said. in response to a tweet about the launch.
Inter-satellite links allow satellites to transfer communications from one satellite to another, either in the same orbital plane or in an adjacent plane. These links allow operators to minimize the number of ground stations, since a ground station no longer needs to be in the same satellite footprint as user terminals, and to extend coverage to remote areas where ground stations are not available. They can also reduce latency, as the number of hops between satellites and ground stations is reduced.
SpaceX has tested inter-satellite links on other Starlink satellites, although they are not widely used. During a September 2020 webcast of a Starlink launch, the company said it tested “space lasers” between two satellites, relaying hundreds of gigabytes of data. “Once these space lasers are fully deployed, Starlink will be one of the fastest options available to transfer data around the world,” the company said at the time.
Musk, in another tweet, said SpaceX will deploy laser inter-satellite links to other Starlink satellites next year. “All the satellites launched next year will have laser links. Only our polar satellites have lasers this year and are v0.9, ”he says.
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