South Texas Resident Uses SpaceX Starlink Internet At Starbase Starship Launch Site

Featured Image Source: Jessica Kirsh via Twitter

SpaceX’s ultimate goal is to enable humanity to build the first city on Mars. Engineers are working to develop Starship at the Starbase facility in Boca Chica Village, Texas. SpaceX not only has bold plans to expand life beyond Earth, the company’s Starlink division is deploying the world’s most advanced broadband satellite infrastructure to provide reliable internet access to rural and remote regions around Earth. SpaceX founder Elon Musk hopes the Starlink internet network could one day help fund SpaceX’s goal to make life multi-planetary. Long-term, Starlink broadband service customers are helping the company build the fleet of 1,000 Starships that will enable humans to explore the Solar System. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell says that one day Starlink could also provide internet to astronauts working on Mars.

South Texas resident Jessica Kirsh is an avid supporter of SpaceX. Kirsh told TESMANIAN that she purchased two $499 USD Starlink dish antennas to access the satellite internet service when she visits Boca Chica Beach. She carries one V1 (version 1) dish antenna in her car and says she recently purchased a V2 (version 2) rectangular antenna that she plans to mount to her R.V. in Brownsville. The monthly internet service subscription fee is $99 USD. "Live streaming via Starlink has been a game changer," she says.

Live streaming via #Starlink has been a game changer.

Thank you @SpaceX & @elonmusk for creating satellite internet. #JessicaKirsh #SpaceX #LiveStreaming #Starship pic.twitter.com/3CzMoRIVza

— 🌻 Jessica Kirsh (@jessica_kirsh) January 20, 2022

Boca Chica Village is around 30-minutes away from the city of Brownsville, access to mobile phone and data service is sometimes patchy in the sandy region, especially near the ocean along the Gulf of Mexico next to the Starship launch pad. Kirsh enjoys spending time at Starbase to record videos for her YouTube channel (linked below). "I use Starlink to provide live stream coverage SpaceX’s Starship development program from right here in the action of it all at Starbase. Not only has Starlink allowed me to bring high resolution live stream coverage to the world from such a remote location — with high speeds and very low latency — but it’s also given me an opportunity to help support Elon’s/SpaceX’s mission of human beings becoming a multi-planetary species as a paying customer and early adopter of Starlink satellite internet service," Kirsh says, "This is history, I don’t want anyone to miss out on seeing the magic that’s happening here, in real time, with operations happening 24/7, pre-recorded video updates become dated very quickly!" She uses SpaceX Starlink Internet at the Starbase Starship launch site in her car by connecting the antenna to a solar powered generator. The user terminal is very easy to install, simply plug the dish and Wi-Fi router to an electricity source and point at the sky. In less than 5-minutes, she has access to high-speed Starlink internet from the satellite constellation. As of today, SpaceX operates around 1,400 active internet-beaming satellites in Low Earth Orbit.

 Image Source: @jessica_kirsh via Twitter

  Source: Jessica Kirsh Starlink Speed in South Texas. 

Kirsh performed an Internet speed test that showed the download speed at Boca Chica is 267Mbps (Megabits per second), upload of 10.24Mbps, and low-latency (ping) of 32ms (milliseconds), which is quite fast. Kirsh hopes to continue providing updates of SpaceX’s Starbase facility with Starlink this year. She has been spending a lot of time out there, recently, she captured the moment when a local school district visited the rocket factory. It appears that the company provides tours for students to see Starship manufacturing at Boca Chica, pictured below. 

How cool is it @SpaceX gives tours to local school district students? #STEM #starship #Science #STARBASE #SpaceX
📷 @jessica_kirsh pic.twitter.com/0LKUU4bZHd

— 🌻 Jessica Kirsh (@jessica_kirsh) January 20, 2022

All Photos Source: Jessica Kirsh @jessica_kirsh via Twitter  

Starlink dish at night. / Photo by Reginald Mathalone

Featured Image Source: Jessica Kirsh via Twitter