SpaceX Engineer says they have tested Starlink 'Space Lasers'

Starlink Digital Illustration Created By: Erc X @ErcXspace via Twitter.

SpaceX has developed some of the world’s most advanced spaceflight technologies. The aerospace company plans to fund its space program, including missions to the moon and Mars by offering broadband internet globally. Engineers have developed internet-beaming satellites called Starlink, that have been deployed over the past couple of years. To date, SpaceX has around 708 Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit. Customers will receive internet from space via a 19-inch user terminal dish and a Wi-Fi router device to connect wirelessly to the Starlink network. According to company officials, employees received early access to the devices to test out the network’s performance.

Today, SpaceX deployed a fleet of 60 satellites, during the live broadcast SpaceX Senior Program Reliability Engineer Kate Tice shared that they have been testing two satellites that feature ‘Space Lasers’. “Recently as the Starlink team completed a test of two satellites …that are equipped with our inter-satellite links which we call called space lasers,” she said, “With these space lasers, the Starlink satellites were able to transfer hundreds of gigabytes of data.” These inter-satellite links enable the satellites to communicate ('link') with each other to speed data transfer rate. The data speed increases because light travels faster in a vacuum compared to optical cables, so, information sent through Starlink arrives faster. 

SpaceX plans to enable each future Starlink satellite featuring ‘Space Lasers’ to 'link' with four others using the lasers to allocate broadband resources in real-time by placing capacity where its most on demand; also be capable of directing signal away from areas where it might cause interference to other systems, in space or on Earth.

The test with a pair of satellites is an important milestone achieved by SpaceX because it demonstrates the 'Space Laser' optical link technology works. The company said that all of its future satellites will be equipped with inter-satellite links. “Once these space lasers are fully deployed, Starlink will be one of the fastest options to transmit data all over the world,” Tice stated.

“The Starlink team has been collecting latency statistics and performing standard speed tests of the system. This means that we’re checking how fast data travels from the satellites to our customers, and then back to the rest of the internet. Initial results have been good,” she shared this morning.

Tice also shared that the Starlink broadband’s latency speeds have been “low enough to play the fastest online video games, and our download speed is fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once and still have bandwidth to spare.”

“Our network, of course, is very much a work in progress,” she added. “And over time, we will continue to add features to unlock the full capability of that network.” The Starlink constellation will consist of 12,000 satellites beaming internet down to Earth.

Earlier this year, SpaceX announced it was searching for a Senior Software Engineer with a “passion for engineering” and knowledge in C++ programming language, to join their “Starlink Lasers Communications Team” who will aid in the development of “Space Lasers” for the satellites. The job application said it will be the first time SpaceX ever attempts to create a technology for a satellite network that involves lasers; it “will involve building new technologies from scratch.”

SpaceX targets to initially offer Starlink internet in rural areas, starting in northern United States and Canada, then expanding service globally by 2021.