Elon Musk is not getting out of spotlight let it be regarding Facebook’s recent scandal or innovating new things for people to be shocked as well as happy about it. Being the CEO of SpaceX which deals with rockets and stuff is serious about providing broadband connectivity to the entire world at every location possible. In 2016, SpaceX proposed a model to FCC about launching thousands of satellites. Yesterday, FCC gave a green signal to SpaceX on their revised 2016 model to cover the Earth with a blanket of satellites to provide internet to every accessible part of the world. Currently, all the broadband satellites are placed above 10000 KM from the surface of the Earth whereas 4,425 satellites proposed by Starlink will be placed approximately 700 miles above the Earth according to the proposed model of SpaceX approved by FCC. They will need a separate authorization from FCC regarding the launch of the remaining 7500 satellites which will be placed at around 200 miles from the surface. The approval also includes that SpaceX should launch half of its proposed satellites within a deadline period of six years which will mean launching 2,200 satellites in six years that is more than a satellite per day. That will need apt planning or it might result in the crashing of the rocket or satellites with one another.
— T-Dub (@twill176) March 31, 2018
Competitors such as OneWeb has filed a petition to reject the approval granted by FCC, since launching such high volume of satellite might result in crashing with their own objects. Being rivals, OneWeb will surely criticize the project but NASA has also said that safety standards will not apply to Starlink as launching such large amount of satellite might result in crashing with other satellites and objects present currently in the sky.
The approval was nearly certain as last month FCC chairman Ajit Pai was quite excited with the prospect US-based company getting authorized to launch a number of satellites. After getting approval, SpaceX launched two satellites nicknamed Tintin A and B through their PAZ mission from Spain, they sent a message to the people of Los Angeles, “Don’t inform to anyone but the Wi-Fi password is ‘martians’ ” on 22nd February. Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX said in a statement, “We appreciate FCC for granting us the approval for our Starlink project. We have quite a lot of work to be completed to be successful in the mission of building next-generation satellite communication system which will link the entire globe with broadband connectivity especially those areas where there is no facility of it”. SpaceX is not the only company which got approval for launching satellites from FCC. OneWeb, one of its rival company also got approval for launching 720 satellites last year through Amazon Blue origin rockets.
Love seeing the scars of the rocket pic.twitter.com/y5FQrLcV9B
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 31, 2018
Being so close to the surface, these satellites will have fewer latency delays compared with the existing system of fiber optic cables. Patricia Cooper, VP of SpaceX said the US Senate Chamber of Commerce that their system will provide 1Gbps speed to the people. Meanwhile, Samsung and Verizon have started the testing of 5G network in some locations and it is predicted that by 2025, the world will be covered with the 5G network which will be around the time, Starlink will go online.
