SpaceX Starlink getting closer to being operational

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According to Musk, Starlink internet latency (often known as ping) might actually be better than fiber internet, offering ~20 ms for Version 1 and ~8 ms when Version 2 debuts (ETA unknown).

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I always thought this was the limitation of satellite internet, since the distances were so great it was impossible to get lower levels.

This seems pretty promising though.

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I always thought this was the limitation of satellite internet, since the distances were so great it was impossible to get lower levels.

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That is a limitation with geostationary satellite internet. That style of satellite TV/internet service relies on few satellites that are always in the same spot in the sky, and the dish must be aimed precisely. The way orbits/physics works, that can only be achieved at a height of 22,236 miles above earth. Any lower, the sat will have to orbit faster to remain in orbit, and it will move in the sky. Any higher, the sat will have to orbit slower to remain in orbit, and it will move in the sky.

So given they're about 22k miles away, one ping will have to traverse that distance 4 times... one up, one down on the way there, and one up one down on the way back. That's 88k miles. Given the speed of light at 186k miles per second, the absolute bare minimum ping time is 475ms, and that's before accounting for routing delays and additional mileage across the ground.


Starlink, on the other hand, does not use geostationary satellites. They are only ~350 miles up in low earth orbit (LEO). This means they will move across the sky very quickly, so that's why they have to launch thousands of sats to kind of blanket the planet. The receiver doesn't have to track them across the sky because there will always be one close enough. The same 4X applies, but 1400 miles requires a minimum of 7.5ms as opposed to the 475 of geostationary sats.

Further, since Starlink sats will be able to communicate directly with one another in a perfectly straight line, they actually have the potential for ping times lower than terrestrial services in some instances, because physical cabling obviously requires some extra lengths to get around the globe. Also the speed of light in fiber is a bit slower than in the vacuum of space.

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We currently have 58.

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I think we are currently at 418 satellites. Each dragon launch is putting about 60 into orbit.

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I think he wants 12000 satellites. We currently have 58

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I and read that he has these satellites set up to communicate with Mars in a way that works around the FCC

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They are only ~350 miles up in low earth orbit (LEO)

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Clearly Musk has some engineers who frequent the OT.

LINK

We had a lunch of 58 satellites on June 13th and another dragon launch planned for Next Monday on the 22nd. SpaceX is really ramping up deployment. It looks like they have 2 launches a month planned for the foreseeable future.

I hope they will be responsible to take all that crap out of orbit when the tech reaches EOL.

So does this mean I can tell cox to go suck it?

I read they were aiming for the northern part of US/Canada to start with, I think? I signed up for beta though so hope to hear more soon-ish. I think once it actually gets up and running it'll only be a few months or so before they really start to broaden their reach.