 On May 23rd, 2019, 60 satellites were launched into space by an American aerospace company called SpaceX, which was founded by Elon Musk, the current richest person in the world with over 2 billion USD! The satellites were launched in a spaceship called the Falcon 9 Rocket. Two identical test satellites were launched in February of 2018, they were known as TinTin A and TinTin B. According to SpaceX, these two test satellites were launched to gather data about current and future goals with Starlink. These satellites are a part of a project called Starlink; a satellite network system. There are about 5,000 satellites in orbit around the Earth as of 2023. SpaceX plans to launch over 40,000 more satellites in low orbit to create a mega constellation. Mega constellation is a term used to describe how hundreds or thousands of satellites are used to form what looks like a constellation; just like the Starlink constellation line only SpaceX plans to make it much bigger! These satellites provide a low-cost network connection to remote locations. They create faster internet speeds than average traditional satellite internet. Starlink provides satellite internet service to over 60 countries, which is about 29% of countries in the world. As of May 2023, Starlink provides the internet to over 1.5 million individuals around the world, and another million are on the wait list to get Starlink internet. Starlink satellites have a lifespan of roughly 5 years. That means the first-ever ones are still in orbit to this day and have less than a year before their lifespan is over. When a satellite’s lifespan is up or they fail they fall out of orbit and burn up traveling through the atmosphere. The satellites sit 342 miles or 550 kilometers from Earth. They orbit the Earth at about 17,000 miles per hour and only takes them about 95 minutes to orbit the Earth once. Even though not every country uses Starlink the satellites are positioned around to cover the entire globe! You may think the satellites are rather small and only about four feet tall since there are so many, but you couldn’t be more wrong! These satellites are about 36 feet tall and weigh almost 573 pounds. That’s taller than an average giraffe and about the same height as six Michael B. Jordans stacked on top of each other.  Next time you’re outside or taking a night stroll keep watch and maybe you’ll see the Starlink satellite train in the night sky. Or even take a look into seeing if you can get your hands on a Starlink home internet service kit, but beware their waitlist can be up to a year. That’s how you know it must be worth it! |
