SpaceX and Tesla Founder and South African billionaire Elon Musk (@elonmusk) tweeted an innocuous "Sending this tweet through space via Starlink satellite" on October 22.
Soon, the social media platform was abuzz with Starlink, Starlink satellite and Elon Musk. So, what is the Starlink Satellite, and why is it important?
Very simply put, Starlink is a "satellite constellation" under construction by Musk's SpaceX, envisioned as a new space-based broadband internet for military, scientific and exploratory purposes. It will connect to custom low-cost, high-performance ground receivers.
In May, SpaceX sent up its first 60 operational satellites via the Falcon 9 rocket after launching prototypes TinTin A and TinTin B in 2018.
He followed it up two minutes later with a jubilant: "Whoa, it worked!!"
In fact, in the run-up to the first launch session in May, Musk took to Twitter to share images of the project. He added follow-up tweets clarifying that the images were of the production design, apart from the two test TinTin sent earlier.
The intended network is for a total of 42,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, beginning with an initial 12,000 strong constellation. The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted Starlink license for the 12,000 satellite launches, so long as at least half of these are launched by 2025.
To reach this, the company plans to deploy 60 satellites per launch, planned every two weeks from November.
As per the 12,000 satellite grid, the first is a part will have 4,409 satellites while the second will have 7,518 satellites. The second will be placed at an altitude slightly lower than the first and work in synchronisation with the earth’s movement to offer global connectivity.
However, as radical and disruptive as this sounds, there is still a long way to go before those apart from Musk gain Starlink access.
For one, the ground receiver network to facilitate multiple user terminals needs to be laid out. So far, there is also no plan in regards to the actual roll-out of the service.
The specifics of whether services would be direct to customers or via telecom providers etc. are also yet undecided. Beyond this, the price point would have to be determined as well.
Fact Sheet
- Product development began in 2015.
- The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses the research, development, manufacturing and on-orbit control operations for the satellite Internet project.
- First two prototypes TinTin A and TinTin B launched in February 2018.
- In May 2018, SpaceX pegged the total cost of the decade-long project (design, build and deployment) around $10 billion.
- First 60 operational satellites launched in May 2019.
- Initial commercial operation of the constellation could begin in 2020.
- A re-occurring concern has been the danger posed by space junk.
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