“mega constellation”, connecting the world.
Of course, the project does not come without
criticism: some argue that bright, orbiting
objects could interfere with observations of the
universe, whilst scientists think that the amount
of metal that could be burning up the in Earth’s
atmosphere from old satellites could change
the climate - something that’s, naturally, not
welcomed in today’s uncertain global climate.
Speaking of Starlink at the time of its launch,
CEO Elon Musk said “We’re really talking about
something which is, in the long term, like
rebuilding the internet in space,” adding that
he hoped to capture a part of the $1 trillion
internet connectivity market, which would help
to ind his Mars colonization vision. So far, the
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
has granted SpaceX permission to ly 12,000
Starlink satellites, with the irm iling paperwork
with international regulators to add another
30,000. In 2018, SpaceX launched its irst two
Starlink test craft, named TinTinA and TinTinB,
and the irst 60 Starlink satellites launched a
year aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. They sit
at 550 kilometers in the air, meaning they are
low enough to be pulled back down to Earth by
atmospheric drag in a few years so that they
don’t become “space junk”.
The satellite internet scheme works by beaming
information through the vacuum of space, where
it travels 47% faster than in iber-optic cable,
making it ideal to rapidly deploy internet to
virtually any point on earth, even over hard-to-
reach places. As of 2022, SpaceX has launched
more than 1,900 Starlink satellites overall,
providing broadband to select areas of the world
under a beta testing program. The average