Author: Stephen Johnson / Source: Big Think
- SpaceX plans to launch 1,600 satellites over the next few years, and to complete its full network over the next six.
- Blanketing the globe with wireless internet-providing satellites could have big implications for financial institutions and people in rural areas.
- Some are concerned about the proliferation of space debris in Earth’s orbit.
The Federal Communications Commissions has approved the last key request of SpaceX’s plan to provide the globe with wireless internet beamed from thousands of satellites, a project known as Starlink.
On Thursday, the FCC said the private aerospace company can launch an additional 7,518 satellites into orbit, bringing the total number of approved satellites to about 12,000. The commission first approved the launch of 4,400 Starlink satellites in March following the company’s successful deployment of two test satellites. SpaceX plans to launch the first 1,600 satellites within the next few years, and to launch a full network of internet-providing satellites over the next six.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the goal is to create a new kind of global communications system.
“This is quite an ambitious effort,” Musk said in 2016. “We’re really talking about something which is, in the long term, like rebuilding the internet in space.”
Low Earth orbit
Internet-providing satellites have been around for years, as I wrote in an article on the Starlink project from April. However, they’re typically expensive and provide slower service than land-based internet infrastructure.
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