SpaceX’s effort to build the Starlink constellation is already paying dividends – Florida Today

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Only several hundred satellites into its planned mega-constellation of thousands, SpaceX's Starlink network appears to already be paying dividends for the company that wants to use it for funding eventual trips to the moon and Mars.

In batches of about 60 at a time, SpaceX has launched 13 successful Starlink missions from a mix of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, boosting the internet-beaming network'ssize to 718 currently in orbit. That cadencemade the California-based company the world's largest satellite operator by volume last November.

Emergency personnel battling wildfires, a Native American tribe, and even the Department of Defense have all stepped up to express their interest in the broadband constellation designed tobypass complicated ground infrastructure.

The company's private beta testing program is moving ahead, too, with public access expected to open sometime late this year or early next year. The northern U.S. and southern Canada will be the first regions targeted for public testing.

A rendering of a SpaceX Starlink satellite in low-Earth orbit.(Photo: SpaceX)

CEO Elon Musk hasmade it clear that Starlink wasn't necessarily designed to compete with ground-based options already entrenchedin cities and suburbs. He sees potential in rural, on-the-go, and underserved customers.

In late September, for example, Washington state's Emergency Management Division took to social media to announce it had partneredwith SpaceX to provideinternet to emergency responders and residents in Malden, a town that lost 80% of its buildings towildfires, according to CNN.

"Happy to have the support of SpaceX s Starlink internet as emergency responders look to help residents rebuild the town of Malden," the division said on Twitter, noting the internet infrastructure had been destroyedas well. "Maldenis an area where fiber and most of the town burned down."

The division later confirmed that SpaceX provided the equipment primarily pizza box-sized ground terminals that look like mini satellite dishes free of charge.

About 350 mileswest of Malden, meanwhile, the Native American Hoh tribe also took to social mediato announce it too had entered into a Starlink partnership.

"What a difference high-speed internet can make," the Hoh tribe said on Twitter Wednesday."Our children can participate in remote learning, residents can access healthcare."

Before Starlink, the tribe said, it was only gettingspeeds of less than 1 Mbps. The low-Earth-orbit constellation, meanwhile, can deliverbeyond 100 Mbps if conditions are ideal.

"We felt like we'd been paddling up-river with a spoon on this," the tribe said. "SpaceX Starlink made it happen overnight."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center with 60 Starlink internet satellites on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.(Photo: Craig Bailey / FLORIDA TODAY)

The military has taken notice of SpaceX's new satellite experience, too.

The Air Force, for example, has already awarded the company at least $28 million for testing internet connectivity while aircraft are in the skies. Then on Monday,Starlink scored a coup in the lucrative world of defense satellites when theSpace Development Agency chose SpaceX to develop and build four brand new spacecraft.

The company was awarded nearly $150 million for the "Tracking Layer Tranche 0Wide Field of View" program, part of theNational Defense Space Architecture. The satellites, launched sometime in or after 2022,will help detect and track ballistic missiles.

It marks the first military production order for SpaceX and, if all goes well, likely won't be the last the Tracking Layer is slated to grow much larger in the coming years. The company is expected to use its Seattle assembly line.

SpaceX was just one of two companies selected to build the missile-detecting satellites for the SDA. The other, also tasked with building four similar satellites for $193 million, will sound familiar to Space Coast residents:L3Harris.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing atfloridatoday.com/specialoffer/.

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SpaceX's effort to build the Starlink constellation is already paying dividends - Florida Today