Tag: starlink

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rolls Out In-Flight WiFi Services for Private Jets With Starlink Aviation

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is expanding its satellite internet unit’s foray into in-flight WiFi services with the rollout on Wednesday of Starlink Aviation, offering customers a $150,000 (nearly Rs. 1.2 crore) airplane antenna amid mounting competition for airborne connectivity.

Starlink, SpaceX‘s growing network of thousands of internet satellites, will charge customers seeking broadband internet on private jets between $12,500 (nearly Rs. 10.3 lakh) to $25,000 (nearly Rs. 20.7 lakh) a month for the service, on top of a one-time $150,000 hardware cost, the company said on its website.

Starlink Aviation will begin delivering terminals in mid-2023, it said on its website, with reservations requiring a $5,000 (nearly Rs. 4.1 lakh) payment. It added each terminal can deliver up to 350Mbps, fast enough for video calls and online gaming.

Companies building low-Earth orbiting satellite networks beaming broadband internet, like SpaceX’s Starlink and Britain-backed satellite operator OneWeb, are racing to court airlines and private jet services in a market dominated by companies such as Inmarsat and its rival ViaSat, which are planning to merge.

OneWeb on Tuesday announced an agreement with in-flight broadband giant Panasonic Avionics, which offers service to some 70 airlines, to market and sell OneWeb’s broadband service to airlines by mid-2023.

Britain’s competition regulator last week referred Viasat’s planned takeover of rival Inmarsat for an in-depth investigation over concerns the tie-up could hamper new competition in the aviation connectivity market and increase prices for airlines’ on-board Wi-Fi.

SpaceX plans to offer Starlink internet connectivity to Hawaiian Airlines planes next year. The company offers the service for maritime customers and RVs, and already has tens of thousands of individual consumers paying $110 (nearly Rs. 9,100) a month with a $599 (nearly Rs. 49,700) terminal.

In other news, Elon Musk said on Tuesday that SpaceX’s Starlink services have not received any funding from the US Department of Defense. The statement came a day after reports said The Pentagon is considering paying for Starlink satellite network in war-torn Ukraine. According to Musk’s tweet, SpaceX is losing approximately $20 million (roughly Rs. 165 crore) a month from unpaid service and costs related to security measures for cyberwar defence. 

© Thomson Reuters 2022

 

 

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Elon Musk Says SpaceX Cannot Indefinitely Fund Starlink Internet Service in Ukraine

Elon Musk said on Friday SpaceX cannot “indefinitely” fund the Starlink internet service in Ukraine and send it several thousand more terminals after a report suggested that his rocket company had asked the Pentagon to pay for the donations.

Musk‘s comment on the question of support for the internet service in Ukraine comes after he angered many Ukrainians with a proposal to end Russia’s war in their country that included ceding some territory.

“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. This is unreasonable,” Musk said on Twitter.

The billionaire boss of Tesla said Starlink was spending nearly $20 million (roughly Rs. 165 crore) a month, he called it a “burn”, for maintaining satellite services in Ukraine. He recently said that SpaceX had spent about $80 million (roughly Rs. 660 crore) to enable and support Starlink in Ukraine.

CNN reported on Thursday that SpaceX sent a letter to the Pentagon last month saying it could not continue to fund the Starlink service in Ukraine and it may have to stop funding it unless the US military helped with tens of millions of dollars a month.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

Musk activated Starlink in Ukraine in late February after internet services were disrupted because of Russia’s invasion. SpaceX has since given it thousands of terminals.

Ukraine’s vice prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said this week that Starlink services helped restore energy and communications infrastructure in critical areas after more than 100 Russian cruise missile attacks.

Russia calls its intervention in Ukraine a “special military operation” and says it does not target civilians.

Musk drew widespread criticism from Ukrainians over his peace plan in which he proposed that Ukraine permanently cede the Crimea region to Russia, that new referendums be held under UN auspices to determine the fate of Russian-controlled territory, and that Ukraine agree to neutrality.

Ukraine says it will never agree to cede land taken by force, and lawful referendums cannot be held in an occupied territory where many people have been killed or driven out.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was among those who criticised Musk’s proposal.

Ukraine’s outgoing ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, also condemned the proposal in blunt terms, saying on Twitter: “Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk.”

Musk, responding to a post referring to the fate of the Starlink service and the ambassador’s remark, said, “We’re just following his recommendation.”

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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Elon Musk Deploys Starlink Service in Iran Amid Country-Wide Internet Restrictions

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has deployed his satellite-based Starlink service in Iran amid widespread protests in the country following which authorities had restricted internet access.

This Iranian government had cut off internet access for many of its citizens on Wednesday amid widespread protests over the death of a 22-year-old woman, Mahsa Amini, in police custody, according to reports.

On Friday, SpaceX founder Elon Musk had indicated that he will make Starlink available in Iran.

US State Secretary Antony Blinken earlier announced on Twitter about advancing internet freedom and the free flow of information for the Iranian people by issuing a General License to provide them greater access to digital communications to counter, what he claimed, was the Iranian government’s censorship.

Replying to Blinken’s tweet, Musk wrote, “Activating Starlink.”

Protestors have been demanding basic rights of freedom and holding demonstrations against the mandatory dress codes including the compulsory wearing of the Hijab.

The protests in Iran erupted last weekend after Mahsa Amini died following her detainment by Iran’s morality police. She died a few days after falling into a coma while being detained on an accusation of violating a law related to hijabs.

It is worth noting that earlier this week, lawmakers from New York and New Jersey had urged the US Treasury Department to grant approval if SpaceX sought licensing permission to make internet service available in Iran.

Lawmakers, led by Claudia Tenney of New York and Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, reportedly made the appeal to the Treasury Department, Fox News had reported. The letter came after Musk tweeted Monday that SpaceX would seek exemptions from sanctions on the country.

SpaceX has deployed Starlink in emergency situations in past, such as in Ukraine after Russia invaded and in the South Pacific islands of Tonga after a volcanic eruption.



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SpaceX Has Launched 32 Satellites in 2022 for Starlink Mission, Breaks Annual Launch Record

Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Friday broke its record for the number of rockets launched in a calendar year, topping last year’s slate of 31 missions amid a whirlwind campaign to launch its own internet satellites into orbit.

SpaceX’s 32nd launch of 2022 using its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket comes as the company races to build a constellation of broadband satellites called Starlink, a largely consumer-based service with hundreds of thousands of internet users.

“Congrats to SpaceX team on record number of launches!” Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive, tweeted after the mission, which deployed 46 Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit.

The mission took off from the company’s California launchsite at the Vandenberg Space Force Base. SpaceX so far has launched nearly 3,000 Starlink satellites to space.

Friday’s mission keeps SpaceX on pace to reach its goal of 52 orbital missions by year’s end, nearly doubling its annual launch cadence with the reusable Falcon 9 that SpaceX says can be reflown up to 15 times.

A majority of those missions have been, and are scheduled to be in-house Starlink missions.

The company, founded by Musk in 2002 to normalise interplanetary travel, has in recent months shifted its focus from manufacturing Falcon 9 rockets to managing a fleet of those already built, investing heavily in infrastructure for refurbishing boosters under speedy timelines.

The company has applied the same strategy to its fleet of reusable Crew Dragons – gumdrop-shaped spacecraft that launch atop the Falcon 9 and ferry humans to orbit and the International Space Station.

SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites to space quicker than its rivals in the satellite internet race, such as satellite operator OneWeb, due in part to Falcon 9’s rapid reusability and the edge associated with using in-house rockets.

OneWeb, which is nearing completion of an internet constellation with fewer satellites, has launched its satellites on Russia’s Soyuz rocket. The company this year plans to use the Falcon 9 after canceling its Soyuz contract over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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Elon Musk’s SpaceX Launches 53 Starlink Satellites From California

A SpaceX rocket carried 53 satellites for the Starlink internet constellation into orbit Friday after blasting off from California.

The Falcon 9 booster lifted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 3:07pm., and minutes later the first stage landed on a droneship in the Pacific Ocean while the second stage continued toward low Earth orbit.

SpaceX later tweeted that the satellites were successfully deployed.

Starlink is a space-based system that SpaceX has been building for years to bring internet access to underserved areas of the world.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX has hundreds of Starlink satellites orbiting Earth at an altitude of 340 miles (550 kilometers).

SpaceX recently announced that its Starlink Internet service will now be available in 32 new countries. It shared an availability map for the service, which showed countries marked under different segments such as Available, Waitlist, and Coming Soon. Most countries in Europe and North America are listed under Available, while some regions in South America are under waitlist, which means that the Starlink service is read to ship in these regions. Most of the newly added countries fall under the coming soon category, including all of Africa, South America, and South and Southeast Asia.

The Starlink Internet service will expand to more countries, including India. However, in India, the service still hasn’t received commercial licences. SpaceX had originally planned to launch the service in India and provide full coverage by the end of 2021. The new availability map does not reveal any timelines for the countries where the Internet service is said to launch.

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Elon Musk’s Starlink Now Available to Ship Immediately in 32 Countries

SpaceX has announced that its satellite Internet service, Starlink, is now available in 32 countries. The company shared an availability map for Starlink, marking countries under ‘Available’, ‘Waitlist’, and ‘Coming Soon’ segments. Primarily countries in Europe and North America fall under ‘Available’. Furthermore, the company claims that in these regions, Starlink is ready to be shipped immediately. On the other hand, all of Africa and most South American countries are marked to soon receive Starlink. South and Southeast Asia countries also come under ‘Coming Soon’ for now.

The announcement was made through SpaceX‘s official Twitter handle. As mentioned earlier, Starlink will now be delivered immediately in a total of 32 countries across the world. SpaceX is expected to expand the availability of Starlink to more countries, which also includes India. The availability map does not show any timelines for countries where Starlink will be launched at a later stage, however, it is expected to begin sometime in 2023.

Previously, SpaceX had planned to deploy its Starlink network in India and provide complete coverage by the end of 2021. Its aim was to target rural Lok Sabha constituencies in the country to provide high-speed Internet access in remote areas where wired broadband Internet connections might be difficult to set up. The company would have utilised 80 percent of the Starlink terminal shipped to India for rural areas. SpaceX had ambitions of installing up to 200,000 terminals in India by the end of 2022.

However, it failed to apply for a commercial licence to provide broadband and other connections in India by the end of 2021. Following this, SpaceX was directed by the Department of Telecom to issue refunds for the 5,000 pre-orders that the company had already received from customers in India. In the emails sent to its customers in India, SpaceX mentioned that “several issues” would have to be resolved for the company to acquire a licence in India. It also failed to share a timeline for when Starlink might eventually be available in the country.

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