Starlink, SpaceX’s internet connectivity satellite constellation, is taking form. The project is designed to offer higher speeds and lower latency than competing setups, so long as the receiver can see the satellites in orbit. It could help fund some of CEO Elon Musk’s more ambitious goals, like a city on Mars and a planet-hopping society.
But although SpaceX has launched three batches of 60 satellites already, ahead of a planned start for services later this year, how to connect to Starlink remains difficult to understand. How much will a subscription cost? Will it be available in my area? Is Starlink going to keep interrupting astronomers’ work? This week, Musk provided new details about Starlink’s features.
SpaceX has ambitious plans for Starlink. It’s requested permission to launch up to 42,000 satellites, a huge number considering there’s around 5,000 satellites in space total. Each craft orbits at 550 kilometers above sea level, much lower than most satellites.
The first 60 Starlink satellites just moments before they were deployed.
It could mean big money for SpaceX. Musk told reporters in May 2019 that internet is a $1 trillion market. Capturing around five percent of that would give SpaceX around $50 billion per year. That would greatly eclipse the satellite industry, which only brings in around $5 billion per year in its entirety, and could go some way to meeting the cost of a city on Mars that could run up to $10 trillion.
Here’s how it may work.
SpaceX Starlink: how to connect to the internet service
Based on previously released information, Starlink will not interface directly with devices. In other words, your laptop won’t connect directly to the sky satellites.
Starlink will provide access through a ground terminal. On January 7, Musk said that the terminal “looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick.” It’s also equipped with “motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky.”
This chimes with SpaceX’s FCC fling in October 2018, which described the ground terminal as about the same size as a pizza box. SpaceX’s 2016 filing describes it as a “low-profile user terminal that is easy to mount and operate on walls or roofs.”
In his January 2020 post, Musk even produced a series of easy-to-follow instructions:
Instructions are simply:
– Plug in socket
– Point at sky
These instructions work in either order. No training required.
Elon Musk’s instructions for getting online.
If Apple taught the world anything, it’s that people love getting online in just two steps:
The service may have already had its first user — Musk claimed in October 2019 that he sent a post via the service to Twitter.
Musk’s tweet flies through the air.
SpaceX Starlink: when will it be available?
SpaceX’s website currently claims that service will be provided for the northern United States and Canada as early as 2020. This will expand to “near global coverage of the populated world” by 2021.
The company has completed three launches, each packing 60 production-design satellites. The first was launched in May 2019, the second in November 2019, and the third in January 2020.
Musk claimed ahead of the May 2019 launch that six more launches would be needed to provide minor coverage, and 12 more launches would offer moderate coverage. An earlier version of Starlink’s website claimed that services in the northern United States and Canada would start after six launches, with global coverage of the populated world after 24 launches. This claim has now been removed from the Starlink website.
SpaceX Starlink: how much will it cost per month?
This is the big unknown. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell said in October 2019 that many consumers are paying $80 for “crappy service.” Shotwell did not, however, confirm the price during this appearance.
During a 2015 speech in Seattle, Musk shot down the idea of offering the service for free. He also suggested a price for the terminal at somewhere between $100 and $300.
The Starlink mission takes off.
SpaceX Starlink: what will be the specifications for speed and latency?
This is another question that may become clearer with real-world tests. The company’s 2016 filing with the FCC described internet service up to one gigabit per second, and latencies between 25 and 35 milliseconds.
More recently, SpaceX has been working with the United States Air Force to offer internet service. The program started tests in early 2018, using the two prototype satellites to reach speeds of up to 610 megabits per second.
SpaceX Starlink: how to sign up for reservations
SpaceX’s website does not offer anywhere to place contact information for more details, but watch this space — Tesla’s Model 3 reservation program proved wildly popular in 2016, with lines forming around blocks to place $1,000 down for the entry-level electric car.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The body of Ugandan Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei — who died after being set on fire by her partner in Kenya — was received Friday by family and anti-femicide crusaders, ahead of her burial a day later.
Cheptegei’s family met with dozens of activists Friday who had marched to the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital’s morgue in the western city of Eldoret while chanting anti-femicide slogans.
She is the fourth female athlete to have been killed by her partner in Kenya in yet another case of gender-based violence in recent years.
Viola Cheptoo, the founder of Tirop Angels – an organization that was formed in honor of athlete Agnes Tirop, who was stabbed to death in 2021, said stakeholders need to ensure this is the last death of an athlete due to gender-based violence.
“We are here to say that enough is enough, we are tired of burying our sisters due to GBV,” she said.
It was a somber mood at the morgue as athletes and family members viewed Cheptegei’s body which sustained 80% of burns after she was doused with gasoline by her partner Dickson Ndiema. Ndiema sustained 30% burns on his body and later succumbed.
Ndiema and Cheptegei were said to have quarreled over a piece of land that the athlete bought in Kenya, according to a report filed by the local chief.
Cheptegei competed in the women’s marathon at the Paris Olympics less than a month before the attack. She finished in 44th place.
Cheptegei’s father, Joseph, said that the body will make a brief stop at their home in the Endebess area before proceeding to Bukwo in eastern Uganda for a night vigil and burial on Saturday.
“We are in the final part of giving my daughter the last respect,” a visibly distraught Joseph said.
He told reporters last week that Ndiema was stalking and threatening Cheptegei and the family had informed police.
Four in 10 women or an estimated 41% of dating or married Kenyan women have experienced physical or sexual violence perpetrated by their current or most recent partner, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display Wednesday after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.
Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.
Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
The jar has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
The Bronze Age jar is one of many artifacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbal Rivlin, the director of the museum, which is associated with Haifa University in northern Israel.
It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.
Rivlin added that the incident provided a welcome distraction from the ongoing war in Gaza. “Well, he’s just a kid. So I think that somehow it touches the heart of the people in Israel and around the world,“ said Rivlin.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Experts used 3D technology, hi-resolution videos, and special glue to painstakingly reconstruct the large jar.
Less than two weeks after it broke, the jar went back on display at the museum. The gluing process left small hairline cracks, and a few pieces are missing, but the jar’s impressive size remains.
The only noticeable difference in the exhibit was a new sign reading “please don’t touch.”
VICTORIA – The British Columbia government is partnering with a bear welfare group to reduce the number of bears being euthanized in the province.
Nicholas Scapillati, executive director of Grizzly Bear Foundation, said Monday that it comes after months-long discussions with the province on how to protect bears, with the goal to give the animals a “better and second chance at life in the wild.”
Scapillati said what’s exciting about the project is that the government is open to working with outside experts and the public.
“So, they’ll be working through Indigenous knowledge and scientific understanding, bringing in the latest techniques and training expertise from leading experts,” he said in an interview.
B.C. government data show conservation officers destroyed 603 black bears and 23 grizzly bears in 2023, while 154 black bears were killed by officers in the first six months of this year.
Scapillati said the group will publish a report with recommendations by next spring, while an independent oversight committee will be set up to review all bear encounters with conservation officers to provide advice to the government.
Environment Minister George Heyman said in a statement that they are looking for new ways to ensure conservation officers “have the trust of the communities they serve,” and the panel will make recommendations to enhance officer training and improve policies.
Lesley Fox, with the wildlife protection group The Fur-Bearers, said they’ve been calling for such a committee for decades.
“This move demonstrates the government is listening,” said Fox. “I suspect, because of the impending election, their listening skills are potentially a little sharper than they normally are.”
Fox said the partnership came from “a place of long frustration” as provincial conservation officers kill more than 500 black bears every year on average, and the public is “no longer tolerating this kind of approach.”
“I think that the conservation officer service and the B.C. government are aware they need to change, and certainly the public has been asking for it,” said Fox.
Fox said there’s a lot of optimism about the new partnership, but, as with any government, there will likely be a lot of red tape to get through.
“I think speed is going to be important, whether or not the committee has the ability to make change and make change relatively quickly without having to study an issue to death, ” said Fox.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 9, 2024.
