SpaceX provides kits to boost internet capabilities in hard-hit areas – Paducah Sun

SpaceX is providing Starlink satellite kits to areas hit hard by last Fridays tornadoes that will help people get access to the internet. It is also providing routers to provide WiFi capabilities.

The kits provide dishes that link to SpaceX Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbits, which provide internet services and WiFi directly.

These kits will be supplied to Graves County, Marshall County, Caldwell County and Bowling Green through a coordinated effort with SpaceX, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service.

Twenty kits were brought into the UK Cooperative Extension office in Paducah on Wednesday, and 30 to 40 more have been requested by the state.

Austin Marshall, a native of Possum Trot who is a material flow engineer for SpaceX in Redmond, Washington, was one of the people to deliver the first of the kits to the Extension office in Paducah.

Marshall is a former 4-H member and reached out to the UK Cooperative Extension office to help with distribution.

I like coming back home, but I wish the circumstances were better, he said. Im the one who put it all together. I saw there was a need.

This is what were doing, is building a satellite internet constellation. Its in Beta right now; were testing it out in the northern latitudes of North America and other countries. This is the first time its been in Kentucky, and they just turned on this area because of the disaster.

Marshall contacted Brittany Osborne, the Agent for 4-H Youth Development at the Paducah Extension office.

The UK Cooperative Extension Service has an office in each of the affected Kentucky counties, Osborne said. This effort just makes sense and empowers us even more to do what we do best to help our neighbors and communities.

The Starlink kits will remain in the affected areas for two months. If they are needed longer than that, the teams will reassess the situation.

The dish portion of the kit is angled to best receive signals from the SpaceX Starlink satellite in low-Earth orbit.

To maximize reach, the University of Kentucky is working closely with Kentucky Emergency Management and Connected Nation, a nonprofit that provides tools and resources to help local communities, states and federal agencies create and implement solutions for their broadband and digital technology gaps.

We are so grateful that Starlink has provided this connectivity to our hard-hit communities, said Laura Stephenson, associate dean and Extension director for the UK College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, adding 4-H creates lifelong servant leaders, and this is a great example of how 4-Hers answer the call to help, even after they leave our system.

Follow David B. Snow on Twitter, @SunWithSnow, or on Facebook at facebook.com/sunwithsnow.

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SpaceX provides kits to boost internet capabilities in hard-hit areas - Paducah Sun