Elon Musk starts SpaceX mission to provide broadband from satellites

Feb 23, 2018 (LBO) – SpaceX made history yet again with the successful deployment of first two Starlink global internet demo satellites to orbit, opening a new generation of satellite technologies that will provide broadband services.

Starlink is a satellite constellation development project underway by SpaceX. On Thursday, Falcon 9 launched the two demo satellites called Tintin A and B from Space Launch Complex at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

Founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter that these two satellites were successfully deployed and communicating with earth’s relay stations. His aim is to develop a low-cost, high-performance satellite bus and requisite customer ground transceivers to implement a new space-based Internet communication system. By 2017, SpaceX had submitted regulatory filings to launch a total of nearly 12,000 satellites to orbit by the mid-2020s. US Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai last week proposed that the agency approve SpaceX application to provide broadband services using satellite technologies in the US and on a global basis. “Satellite technology can help reach Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach,” Pai said. “It can offer more competition where terrestrial Internet access is already available.” If adopted, it would be the first approval given to an American-based company to provide broadband services using a new generation of low-earth orbit satellite technologies. Over the past year, the FCC has approved requests by OneWeb, Space Norway, and Telesat to access the US market to provide broadband services using satellite technology. These approvals are the first of their kind for a new generation of large, non-geostationary satellite orbit, fixed-satellite service systems. In mid 2017, Elon Musk left Donald Trump's advisory council over the President's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accords.

First two Starlink demo satellites, called Tintin A & B, deployed and communicating to Earth stations pic.twitter.com/TfI53wHEtz

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 22, 2018