WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF
As LEO satellite constellations help connect everyone and everything on Earth this is a big speed boost for the network.
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SpaceX’s Starlink service, which offers ultrafast broadband speeds of up to 500mbps at the moment to the globe via a mega constellation of satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), has published an annual 2024 Progress Report that summarises their recent upgrades and reveals how their future V3 (GEN3) satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (Terabits per second) of capacity.
At present Starlink’s network has around 6,900 satellites in orbit (c.2,800 are v2 Mini / GEN 2A) – mostly at altitudes of c.500-600km – and they’re in the process of adding thousands more by the end of 2027. Customers in the UK typically pay from £75 a month for a 30-day term, plus £299 for hardware on the ‘Standard’ unlimited data plan (inc. £19 postage), which promises latency times of 25-60ms, downloads of c. 25-100Mbps and uploads of c. 5-10Mbps.
The Future of Communications, by Communications Futurist Matthew Griffin
However, those with a long enough memory may recall that the operator has long held an aspiration toward delivering up to 1000Mbps (1Gbps) download speeds to customers (possibly even rising up to 10Gbps in the future), although today’s real-world experiences often still fall quite a bit short of that. For example, the average UK download speed on Starlink is currently 66.8Mbps and this rises up to 157Mbps for those with the top 10% of fastest connections, while uploads average 10.2Mbps or 16.7Mbps for those in the top 10%.
Suffice to say that the network is currently a long way off the 1Gbps+ mark for UK consumers, which in fairness is partly how they’re able to keep the service so relatively affordable for what you get. According to Starlink’s new 2024 Progress Report, the company’s current network has already launched a total cumulative data capacity of around 350Tbps (Terabits per second) into orbit, but that’s about to grow considerably.
SpaceX has long envisaged that their huge new Starship rocket, which is now nearly ready to handle its first commercial launches, would be capable of lofting much heavier / larger satellites in the future – in a greater quantity and thus higher cost efficiency. This is important because they’re currently preparing their next generation (V3) satellites to take advantage of this.
Just for some context, Starlink’s current V2 Mini satellites, introduced in 2023, have already enhanced performance with quadrupled bandwidth capacity (96Gbps per satellite) compared with their previous v1.5 spacecraft. But the company’s new progress report tells us precisely what we can now expect when they start launching their first v3 / GEN3 satellites in the near future.
In short, each v3 satellite will be able to handle 1Tbps (1,000 Gbps) of downlink speeds and 160Gbps of uplink capacity, with the Starship rocket seemingly able to put around 60 v3 satellites per launch into orbit. But this is an assumption which assumes 60Tbps is only referring to downlink performance, otherwise it may be closer to c. 50 satellites (inc. uplink).
At the time of writing, we still don’t know precisely when SpaceX will start using Starship for full-scale commercial launches, but it’s highly likely to begin sometime during 2025 given the rocket’s recent progress. The new satellites may well sit slightly closer to earth (lower altitude, which is good for performance but does sacrifice a little coverage) and will be able to harness more radio spectrum frequency to help support their performance, as well as other enhancements (newer antennas etc.).
Speaking of Starlink, SpaceX are currently planning to launch their next rocket test soon from their Starbase at Boca Chica Beach. This will be another suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship rocket, a combination of the Ship upper stage (S33) and the Super Heavy booster (B14).
SpaceX plans to catch the Super Heavy booster using the chopsticks on the launch tower again, but will make a final determination on the catch following lift-off and stage separation. This mission will feature the first block upgrades for the Ship upper stage. S33 will perform a landing flip and make a hopefully gentle splashdown in the Indian Ocean.
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