As of Friday, Viasat asked the Federal Communications Commission to pause the April 27 license modification that would allow SpaceX to continue its plans of building out its broadband constellation. The existing constellation already tops more than 1,600 satellites.

On May 15 SpaceX surpassed its 1,584 permitted satellites in 550-kilometer orbits that fell under a previous license by launching 52 additional satellites. And on May 26 they are scheduled to launch 60 more.

Viasat’s arguments to stop or slow the expansion of Starlink depends solely on being able to convince a federal appeals court that the FCC was ‘legally obligated’ to assess the megaconstellation’s environmental impacts prior to approving SpaceX’s previous request to double the number of satellites it originally intended to operate from 550 kilometers.

Originally, the FCC approved a 4,409-satellite constellation that included 2,825 satellites in orbit ranging from 1,100-1,300 kilometers, and 1,584 satellites at 550 kilometers. Then on April 27 SpaceX requested a license modification to move the higher orbiting satellites in to the 550-kilometer set. And also making an adjustment to the number of satellites in the constellation from 4,409 to 4,408.

The company claims the modification will improve any signal lag, or latency, between space and the ground that would ultimately improve the quality of video calls, gaming, and any other activities on the network.

The FCC awarded SpaceX $890 million from the first phase of the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) in December. RDOF’s mission is to bring broadband services to homes and businesses being unserved in the United States. A key qualifying factor to receive funding is low latency.

Stopping Starlink

Since January, roughly 700 additional satellites have launched totaling more than 1,600 Starlink satellites currently in orbit. And a Falcon 9 was scheduled to launch on May 26 from Cape Canaveral, Florida which would be the 13th Starlink launch in 2021.

Until federal courts can review the legality of the license modification, Viasat has asked the FCC to pause any more launches.

Viasat, based out of Carlsbad, California, provides broadband services as well, via geostationary orbit (GEO). The company petitioned the FCC to thoroughly review the environmental impacts prior to awarding license modifications as per the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA currently exempts satellite systems, but Viasat claims this did not happen despite the megaconstellation bringing a new list of considerations forward for regulators.

Some astronomers are worried about how the constellation’s reflectivity could affect ground-based telescope observations and these concerns led to a request for an environmental assessment.

By approving the license modification, the FCC greatly rejected these requests and urged SpaceX to work closely with astronomers to attempt to mitigate the brightness of the satellites. The FCC listed several reasons for rejecting the requests and ultimately not performing environmental assessments. They questioned whether or not light pollution is covered through NEPA, and noted that the Federal Aviation Administration performs its own environmental reviews as part of the licensing process to launch.

According to a May 21 filing to the FCC, Viasat claims that NEPA is required to at least consider the environmental harms prior to granting SpaceX’s application. Harms considered include orbital debris, light pollution, and the overall effects of disintegrating satellites on the atmosphere.

“We believe the FCC failed to conduct a legally required environmental review under NEPA and did not honor the Biden-Harris administration’s commitment to a science-based approach to protecting the atmosphere, the Earth’s climate, space and the well-being of U.S. citizens before authorizing the launch of thousands of new Starlink satellites into low-earth orbit,” John Janka, Viasat’s chief officer for global government and regulatory affairs, said in an emailed statement.

“As such, we have asked the Commission to stay its order until the federal courts review its legality.”

If the FCC does not comply and approve the stay by June 1, Viasat is prepared and fully intends to head to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in an effort to seek a stay and review of the modification order.

SpaceX declined responding to comment requests.

Former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine joined Viasat’s board of directors this past April.

Bridenstine previously stated in an interview that the threat of the megaconstellations safety in space, and the overall space access environment were ‘issues on his radar’.

Currently in development for Viasat is a three-satellite Viasat-3 broadband constellation in geostationary orbit (GEO) with intentions to expand its operations globally, and will provide three terabits per second of output.

With a targeted launch slated for early next year, the first Viasat-3 satellite is set to serve the Americas.

Currently, Musk uses the idle capacity of his rockets to launch waves of up to sixty satellites at one time. This process allows him to have 1,321 satellites in orbit at a significantly lower cost than what is typically associated with these types of operations. Though 12,000 have already been approved, there are roughly 30,000 licenses in current debates.

The satellites are positioned in orbit about sixty times closer to Earth than conventional satellites. And the closer proximity changes the usual approach to satellite communication, and allows it to offer internet access that is drastically faster in speed and relay, with the needed speed to still play competitive video games. With a closer position to the Earth, they are easier to see at night with the naked eye, regardless of the efforts made by the company to reduce the satellites’ luminosity. And can be effectively useful for activities that were otherwise outrageously expensive – until now.

Much like most of Musk’s projects, this is a classic case of leveraging the economies of scale that can be achieved at a later stage in growth. Thanks to SpaceX’s increasingly recycled rocket launches, the satellites can be launched with the potential of cost sharing. On the other hand, the anticipation of drastically reducing the size from the original “UFO on a stick” to the current models capable of being installed to vehicles that meet certain size requirements. The pricing model aligns with these parameters, with an initial connection equipment charge of $499, and a $99 fee each month for service. For users who may not have another option, this is an obvious choice. But the idea is to reduce its cost as scaling allows, which in turn makes it possible to be as competitive, if not more, than the many telecommunications companies in business today throughout the globe.

The U.S. military has taken interest in this concept and went as far as considering the use of  Starlink’s constellation of satellites for a new alternative to the current GPS system.

A common misconception is that design changes and/or implementing new economies of scale doesn’t work, and that the rules in place of an industry or business cannot be changed. But if you think you knew everything there is to know about satellites and scaling, then you sorely underestimated Musk and his portfolio.

This adds on to SpaceX’s previous record of launching 60 satellites into low-Earth orbit. That mission amounted to 1,021 satellites.

Some of the previous missions the booster had been a part of include a test flight of the Demo-1 mission back in March 2019.

Deployment of 60 Starlink satellites confirmed pic.twitter.com/AMLK4R9dMn

— SpaceX (@SpaceX) March 14, 2021

The Falcon 9 booster blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center at 3:01 a.m. PT (6:01 a.m. ET). After the second stage of the mission, the booster re-entered the atmosphere and landed safely on the drone ship Of Course I Still Love You in the Atlantic Ocean.

The satellites that detached from the rocket are a part of the Starlink constellation that is being built to provide internet access to areas with low internet connectivity. According to The Verge, SpaceX has been given the authority to launch 12,000 satellites.

The light that emitted from the rocket caused viewers in Philadelphia to look twice. The pictures taken during the launch look out of this world.

Over York, Pennsylvania 6:10 am EST pic.twitter.com/cYDmSvHc6f

— Junction 116 (@junction116) March 14, 2021

After the launch, the contrails were hit by the sunlight and caused noctilucent clouds which are brighter than the other clouds due to their height. News Channel 8 writes that at this height, 100,000 feet, the contrail is made of ice crystals.

This streak of satellites and records are supposed to resume in the next coming days. According to Tech Crunch, this is the third launch in the past 10 days (about 1 and a half weeks). To continue the project, there will be two more satellite missions this month. One of which will be next Sunday.

It will be exciting to see the rest of the satellites launched and having internet access in rural areas. I think it will be cool to see the Starlink constellation in the sky since it will be in low earth orbit or through a telescope.

On Monday, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that SpaceX is working on an antenna that connects vehicles like semi-trucks and RVs to its satellite internet network.

Musk provided clarification and explained that the antenna will not be used for “connecting Tesla cars to Starlink,” and added that the user “terminal is much too big.”

“This is for aircraft, ships, large trucks and RVs,” Musk said.

SpaceX wants to connect more than just homes to its Starlink satellite internet:

The company submitted an FCC request to begin installing and operating terminals on “moving vehicles” – from cars and trucks to ships and jets. https://t.co/ekXLqjP1fy

— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) March 8, 2021

CNBC had reported that SpaceX sought after authorization from the Federal Communications Commission to begin deploying antennas for its Starlink service on “moving vehicles” – and Musk responded.

Starlink is SpaceX’s capital-intensive project, designed to build an interconnected internet network made up of thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation. And is designed to deliver high-speed internet to consumers anywhere around the globe.

David Goldman, SpaceX director of satellite policy, wrote in a letter to the FCC on Friday that “the volume of traffic flowing over the world’s networks has exploded,” and added “no longer are users willing to forego connectivity while on the move.”

“This application would serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of ground-based components for SpaceX’s satellite system that will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to moving vehicles throughout the United States and to moving vessels and aircraft worldwide,” Goldman wrote.

Last year the space company requested authorization from the FCC to conduct experimental testing with private jets and its maritime fleet of vessels. The new request placed on Friday is for a more broad “blanket license” of operations. SpaceX made it a point that the FCC’s rules “do not require applicants to submit a maximum number of user terminals to be deployed,” and SpaceX did not specify the number of terminals it plans to build/use.

On November 6, Elon Musk’s space company sent a request to the FCC asking if SpaceX could implement their Starlink satellite terminals “on a Gulfstream jet for a period of up to two years.”

Musk’s SpaceX would like to further expand their testing of its Starlink satellite internet by connecting the network to the aircraft, the company revealed. In the Nov. 6 filing the company wrote, “SpaceX seeks experimental authority for operation of one user terminal aboard each of up to five private jets while they are (1) on the ground at an airport, and (2) in flight over the United States (including its territories and territorial waters).”

The user terminals are relatively small devices that rest on the ground and connect to the company’s satellite internet network. Early beta testing has already begun for the user terminals. What Musk described as a “UFO on a stick”, the user terminals that are ground mounted are presumed to have a different design than those that are aircraft mounted. Though, the FCC request described the aircraft mounted terminals as “electrically identical”.

SpaceX made a similar request two months ago to the FCC asking to test Starlink with the ships the company uses to land its rocket boosters. The request sought to add 10 Starlink user terminals to its vessels. That request is still labeled as pending.

In October, SpaceX launched a public beta test of Starlink with service priced at $99 per month. Starlink is SpaceX’s vision to build an interconnected internet network using thousands of satellites. Delivering high-speed internet to anywhere — globally.

While they have not launched enough satellites to cover the globe, SpaceX has, so far, launched 900 Starlink satellites — only a fraction of what is needed for the intended global coverage. Services are already being provided where there is satellite coverage, including here in the northwest United States. And SpaceX continues to work with a variety of organizations in rural regions where its Starlink satellites currently orbit, such as Washington state.

SpaceX has claimed that it will cost $10 billion or more to build this progressive tech system. But based on their projected annual revenue, the company’s leadership is confident that Starlink will produce more than 10 times the revenue of its rocket business. Generating as much as $30 billion per year.

Over the course of July 13 and 14, SpaceX sent out emails to those who applied for Starlink public beta testing, asking for home addresses. Currently, there is no exact date for when the public beta will begin, other than the summer of 2020. However, these emails are a clear indication that we will not have to wait much longer.

UFO on a stick aka Starlink user terminal looks beautiful pic.twitter.com/1aog0FS1jq

— Viv ? (@flcnhvy) July 14, 2020

Furthermore, official Starlink terminal renders have been released. As Elon Musk mentioned, the design is similar to “a UFO on a stick.” Musk goes on to specify that the terminal will be self-oriented by electric motors to always have the optimal connection with the Starlink satellites. This may sound complicated, but the installation process is quite simple. Just plug in and go!

Starlink terminal has motors to self-orient for optimal view angle. No expert installer required. Just plug in & give it a clear view of the sky. Can be in garden, on roof, table, pretty much anywhere, so long as it has a wide view of the sky.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2020

As a bonus, below is an exclusive look of the Starlink terminal boxes. This video affirms that Starlink private beta testing has begun for SpaceX employees.

Here’s a background to those who are unfamiliar with the project: Starlink is a SpaceX mission that aims to provide high-speed broadband in every corner of the globe. This is especially beneficial to those living in inaccessible areas where it’s hard to establish an internet connection.

So far, half a billion dollars in funding were raised and 542 satellites were launched. And by 2020, the company predicts that the northern USA and Canada can start using Starlink’s internet service. To keep track of the developments on the programs, you can even sign up for updates.

But what’s with the ‘UFOs on a stick’? Well, that is the endearing term given by the company to the terminals that users will have to install to access the service. SpaceX has described these terminals in a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing for Starlink and fans have since wondered what it would look like. Now, they can see it for real.

The photos were posted on Reddit by darkpenguin22 and are the only ones available of the terminals. The company posted a number of images and videos of the satellites, but none of the on-ground equipment that it will be using. Although they are vaguely visible in some images of SpaceX’s Boca Chica facility, these are the ones that are the clearest.

The photos seem to have been taken from a distance using a high-power telephoto lens. Two types of antennas are shown, white ones with a five-foot diameter, meant to protect the electronics of the ground station, and the much smaller user terminals.

The ground station will relay internet to the terminals, using which users can connect their devices to the internet. Another unique feature of these terminals is that they self-adjust to “an optimal angle to view the sky,” according to Musk. Upon zooming into the image, you can see the labels which say that they are SpaceX property and prototypes.

“I just happen to live nearby so going there to take some pictures myself was an easy way to contribute to the community,” said darkpenguin22, who wanted to be anonymous. “I’m a long time SpaceX and Tesla fan and work in IT as a sysadmin, so have been closely following Starlink developments for both personal and professional/business purposes.”

They also added, “Could potentially become a very competitive alternative for corporate site-to-site links, at least in less population dense parts of the country/world. I also see it as key to enabling efficient remote working for those of us who prefer a more rural lifestyle.”

Starlink launches

In the first phase of Starlink development, SpaceX expects to launch 1600 satellites to an altitude of 340 miles above the Earth. It aims to achieve this by sending about 60 satellites every fortnight. Of the 542 satellites it has so far launched, 480 are operational and the remaining experimental.

These satellites will be 64 times closer to the Earth than the typical internet satellites, so they could be capable of providing internet that has zero latency. If the company can provide evidence of this to the FCC, it may even manage to obtain billions of dollars of government subsidies. This would allow the company to provide its service at a low cost, at least initially, so that it builds a customer base.

According to President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, once SpaceX launches more than 800 satellites, which it is likely to achieve by this fall, it would “roll out service in a more public way.”

Starlink satellites with Planet Skysats

Furthermore, the Starlink satellites from yesterday’s launch had a friend. Three of Planetlabs’ Planet Skysats were launched into orbit apart of SpaceX’s Smallsat Rideshare Program. The program is meant to provide launches for smallsat manufacturers as low as “$1 million,” and yesterday was SpaceX’s first demonstration of this capability.

Looks like a thin, flat, round UFO on a stick. Starlink Terminal has motors to self-adjust optimal angle to view sky. Instructions are simply:
– Plug in socket
– Point at sky
These instructions work in either order. No training required.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 7, 2020

Earlier this year, Elon Musk revealed that the Starlink internet router would look like a “UFO on a stick,” but no further information or images have been released. Musk has frequently emphasized that the router will be a simple, two-step installation.

Looking up to the skies with open eyes!

Went to HQ and set up a Starlink terminal that connected to the satellites orbiting overhead. Simplest out-of-box experience imaginable.

Can’t wait to upgrade my broadband later this year! pic.twitter.com/6tsk1JwzzU

— Steve Jurvetson (@FutureJurvetson) June 12, 2020

Starlink has begun private beta testing in the SpaceX facilities, and public beta testing is expected to start later this summer. And just recently, the public can enroll in such trials on Starlink.com and be notified when service is available in the customer’s location.

SpaceX is certainly not slowing down with their Starlink launches, with yesterday’s mission being the seventh Starlink launch this year. The next Starlink launch is scheduled for June 22, at 3:20 pm PST or 6:20 pm EST.

Starlink is SpaceX’s mission to provide high-speed internet in every part of the world, including (and especially) the remote areas that usually receive poor broadband service. The revenue collected from this will be pumped into the company’s other project, the Starship.

Starlink is also making progress on the customer service front as it recently updated its website with an email feature. You can sign up for updates on Starlink availability in your area by providing your email, postal code, and country. Some consumers will also be able to access the best test of Starlink’s internet services. The website update happened a day before the June 13th launch.

As soon as you sign up to be notified, you will receive a mail from Starlink which says that it “is designed to deliver high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. Private beta testing is expected to begin later this summer, followed by public beta testing, starting with higher latitudes.”

The company told the FCC that Starlink’s services will first be available in northern America and southern Canada by the end of 2020. By 2021, the service would be available globally. We can expect the internet speed to compete with that of current internet service providers. Elon Musk even declared that the network’s latency will be below 20 milliseconds so “somebody could play a fast-response video game at a competitive level.”

In addition to launching satellites into space, the company will also have to finish some on-ground work to make the services accessible. This includes building a vast network of ground stations and user terminals that will be provided to consumers.

Gwynne Shotwell, the President of SpaceX, said in 2018 that the project will cost the company $10 billion or more. The company was able to fund a portion of the mission by raising $1.7 billion since early 2019.

Not only will this mission allow Musk to expand his reign into a new field- internet services- it would even further his space exploration ambitions as they can use the revenue earned by providing internet to fund SpaceX’s missions to Mars. So far, the company has obtained investor funding for the program and was able to launch 480 satellites into low-Earth orbit (or LEO).

Recently, we were given more information about the project in a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) hosted by SpaceX engineers. They revealed that the satellites are already generating a large quantity of data- 5 trillion bytes of data, to be specific- and they are receiving updates every week.

The head of the software development team for Starlink, Matt Monson, said that the company relies on the Linux operating system. “Each launch of 60 satellites contains more than 4,000 Linux computers,” he said, “The constellation has more than 30,000 Linux nodes (and more than 6,000 microcontrollers) in space right now. And because we share a lot of our Linux platform infrastructure with Falcon and Dragon, they get the benefit of our more than 180 vehicle-years of on-orbit test time.”

With so many Linux operating systems in space, it’s not hard to see how the company is able to generate so much data.

Monson further went on to comment on the way they addressed any problems that came up, saying that there were many occasions when they faced inconceivable failures. Referring to the satellite, he said that it “was able to keep itself safe long enough for us to debug it, figure out a fix or a workaround, and push up a software update.” In the same Reddit thread, he also shared that SpaceX is sending beams of software updates to the satellites around once every week. “Smaller test deployments” are also happening.

As a response to a question, he wrote, “Doing the detection of problems onboard is one of the best ways to reduce how much telemetry we need to send and store (only send it when it’s interesting). The alerting system we use for this is shared between Starlink and Dragon.”

Similar to how the internet was developed in its beginning stages, Starlink’s network is being tested on military platforms by the US Air Force. The satellite terminals are attached to the cockpit of the aircraft, with the Air Force having access to it for the next three years before switching to a paid service.

The service will be accessible to the public by late 2020, with the northern US and Canada being the first recipients. To access the internet, you will have to use a terminal that looks like “UFO on a stick” (the words of company officials). SpaceX has received approval from the Federal Communications Commission to provide around 1 million of these terminals.