Satellite Internet via Elon Musk will arrive earlier than expected

Starlink is a satellite network of SpaceX, which reduces the cost of launching new satellites. The network will have more than 11,900 satellites, of which 60 are already in orbit. The launch will be completed in the coming years, and now the company has announced that it will change its launch strategy.

This satellite network will allow communications between very remote points of the earth to a lower latency, as well as providing speeds in excess of 1 Gbps in almost any part of the Earth. Having high-speed Internet in isolated areas, at sea or on airplanes will no longer be expensive.

On August 30, SpaceX asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to adjust its satellite orbit, not specifically to avoid the destruction of another European satellite, but to launch satellites with several different altitudes in orbit with different directions, rather than one as it had intended. Company. Thanks to this, they seek to accelerate deployment, cover larger areas, reduce latency and increase speed.

The first area in the world to be served will be the southern states of the United States, which will be operational by the end of the next hurricane season, which usually begins in spring and ends on November 30 each year, so it will operate in those first states before the end of 2020. The rest will be covered Areas of the United States before the next hurricane season, so it will begin operating before the spring of 2021.

Satellite coverage of the northern part of the country will be stable through six launches (about 360 satellites), but they need to make some adjustments to launch in the southern region, as their goal is to reach the Internet as many users as possible in areas that still have Slow connections. They can access areas with worse internet connectivity, such as Hawaii or Puerto Rico.

SpaceX was not clear in terms of launch dates. In October 2017, they said they needed at least 800 satellites before launching the commercial service, with a 2020 or 2021 date. Last year they said that everything was going as planned to launch the service in 2020, and now with the orbital transition different heights will need fewer satellites to start up, so the launch date will arrive earlier than expected.

Currently, satellite connections provide extremely slow speeds, as well as extreme instability, with an access time of about 200 and 300 milliseconds. With the SpaceX constellation, we always have a relatively close satellite, which improves speed with better technology. Starlink expects to offer 25ms of transmission speed and gigabit speed.

Each set of satellites will have different orbital planes. Currently, SpaceX plans to have 66 satellites in a total of 24 orbital planes (1,584 satellites in total), but if the change is approved, they will have 72 orbital planes with 22 satellites in each. Changing the orbit allows the orbits to be shorter and divided over Earth's latitudes, improving coverage with fewer satellites. The company will continue to launch new satellites before the year.