Starlink is connecting more than 3M people with high-speed internet across nearly 100 countries, territories and many other markets.
In February, 2024, Starlink was serving more than 2.3 million customers across the globe. In three months, SpaceX has added about 700,000 customers. SpaceX Starlink is tracking to about 3.5 to 5 million customers at the end of 2024.
Congratulations to the @SpaceX team on passing 3 million customers in 99 countries!
And thanks to you for buying @Starlink!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 20, 2024
In March 2024, the FCC authorized SpaceX to conduct communications in the 71.0-76.0 GHz (spaceto-Earth) and 81.0-86.0 GHz (Earth-to-space) frequency bands (collectively, E-band), with the 7,500 Gen2 Starlink satellites. Starlink using the E-Band increases the bandwidth by four times.
SpaceX second-generation satellites have performed even better than expected so SpaceX has sent a request to the FCC to allow operation at about 350 kilometer instead of 530 kilometers. This would be 68% of the height which would enable 68% latency. This would get latency from 28-35 milliseconds down to 15-20 milliseconds.
In 2022, the FCC cleared SpaceX to operate 7,500 second-generation satellites in 525, 530, and 535 km altitudes or within the same region as the company’s first-ten satellites. China recently proposed a competing satellite network to operate at the 330 kilometer altitude.
The increased atmospheric drag would require ten times the fuel or more for the same satellite life.
DARPA wants to fly satellites closer to the earth where there is more drag and resistance. The thermosphere (90 km or 56 miles) up to 500 and 1,000 km (311 to 621 miles) above our planet. DARPA wants Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) as orbits less than 450 km, or roughly 280 miles. The benefits of being in Very Low Earth Orbit are improved resolution for optical imaging, higher signal-to-noise ratios for radar and lidar systems, improved geospatial position accuracy. It is about ten to twenty times harder to maintain an orbit of 350-450 kilometers versus 550 kilometers. There have been Super Low Altitude Test Satellites (SLATS). Tsubame was a JAXA satellite intended todemonstrate operations in very low Earth orbit (VLEO, below 200 km), using ion engines to counteract aerodynamic drag from the Earth’s atmosphere. It had 4 newtons of thrust for its ion engine and stayed in orbit for about 2 years. Super Low Altitude Test Satellites were twice as close the where DARPA wants to fly.
How Many Starlinks in Orbit?
As of 18 May 2024:
Satellites launched: 6459
Satellites failed or deorbited: 504
Satellites in orbit: 6030
Satellites working: 5955
Satellites operational: 5242
There are over 6,000 Starlink satellites orbiting the Earth 🛰️🛰️ pic.twitter.com/iYGfubutpb
— Dima Zeniuk (@DimaZeniuk) May 21, 2024
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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That is great. It will get then nice money stream to allow further expansion into space. The ability to use use cell phone without specialized equipment even in remote areas is super beneficial.