SpaceX just sent up its 12th set of Starlink satellites into space — and the satellites’ initial tests apparently show its internet speeds are promising.
SpaceX shared an update on the satellite speeds on Thursday in a tweet, saying: “In initial tests of Starlink, the team has been collecting latency data and performing standard speed tests of the system. Results from these tests have shown super low latency and download speeds greater than 100 megabytes per second — fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once and still have bandwidth to spare.”
The average download speed ranges from 12 to 25 Mbps. With a download speed of 100 Mbps, Starlink satellites would be far above average.
The satellites could prove essential in providing broadband internet to more areas, especially rural areas that are statistically less likely to have dependable internet access. Dr. Nicol Turner Lee from the Center for Technology Innovation previously told Digital Trends that more than 20 million Americans do not have adequate internet access.
In the company’s own words, the Starlink satellite project aims to “deploy the world’s most advanced broadband internet system” to provide “fast, reliable internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.” Several other companies are competing with SpaceX to provide similar kinds of services, enabling faster broadband speeds around the globe.
SpaceX has launched 12 batches of its Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbits, totaling about 715, since May of last year. The company plans to launch batches of 60 satellites every two to three weeks over the next year. Eventually, SpaceX’s satellite total could reach more than 40,000, according to Space.com.
After 13 suborbital test flights and more than $15 billion in development costs, SpaceX's Starship has finally reached orbit. The 407-foot megarocket, the most powerful ever built, lifted off from Starbase, Texas, on Monday and delivered its first real payload on it's 14th attempt. The celebration came with an asterisk, though, since SpaceX had to cut the planned 10-hour mission to roughly three hours.
https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/2104601695711904180
SpaceX is finally ready to give Starship its biggest test yet. The company says the massive rocket's 14th test flight is scheduled for September 22, when it will attempt to put the upper stage into Earth orbit for the first time. The launch is currently pending regulatory approval, with a 75-minute window opening at 7:15 a.m. CT.
Starship has 26 Starlink satellites to deliver
For decades, humanity has looked up at the Moon and wondered what it would be like to live on it. Think sprawling cities, factories, research centers, and permanent human settlements. Unfortunately, there is one fairly fundamental problem with that vision.
A new study published in Frontiers in Space Technologies argues that even the Moon's potentially enormous reserves of frozen water may be nowhere near enough to support city-sized populations sustainably. Researchers Martin Elvis and Jonathan McDowell estimate that the permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles could contain roughly one billion tons of water. It sounds like an extraordinary amount until you put a million thirsty humans next to it.