Featured Image Source: SpaceX
SpaceX is getting closer to offering Starlink broadband internet in portions of the Northern United States and Canada before this year ends. Starlink customers will be supporting the company’s ambitious mission to make life multi-planetary. “When space travel becomes as common as air travel, the future of civilization will be assured,” the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk says. SpaceX will need millions in funding to build hundreds of Starships that will enable humans to live on Mars. Starlink will provide the aerospace company with additional revenue to achieve this ambitious endeavor.
To date, SpaceX has launched around 595 Starlink satellites into Low Earth Orbit where they beam internet connection to ground stations on Earth. The company plans to deploy thousands of internet-beaming satellites that will provide internet coverage globally. Starlink customers will receive connection via a user terminal dish and Wi-Fi router, that will not require a professional technician to install. Users will just plug it into an electrical outlet and point it to the sky to access the internet from space. Engineers are actively assessing the satellite’s performance; Employees are currently private beta testing the Starlink network.
This week, SpaceX posted a job listing seeking to hire a Senior Software Engineer “to build mobile applications used to connect customers to the internet” via the Starlink constellation. “Aerospace experience is not required to be successful here - rather we look for smart, motivated, collaborative engineers who love solving problems and want to make an impact on a super inspiring mission,” the company wrote. The engineer will work in a team to develop Android and iOS ‘Starlink Portal’ applications that will enable SpaceX’s customers “to have a seamless experience managing their accounts and Internet access.”
“You will engage with other SpaceX engineers to discover the needs of the mission and write highly reliable software which turns the mission into reality,” the company wrote. “The success of SpaceX’s satellite internet business depends on the quality of the software that you and your team produce. That includes reliability, fault tolerance, throughput, security, and user experience.”
The job listing suggests Starlink customers will be able to manage the Starlink service with a mobile application that will give users a simple experience that will not require a professional, nor in-person customer service. The mobile application is expected to offer users insight to access their accounts, assess their data usage, and even facilitate paying for the service, among other things.
Starlink Beta Testers Share Internet Speeds, SpaceX achieves latency below FCC's 100ms threshold.
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) August 16, 2020
by @JaneidyEve
via @Tesmanian_comhttps://t.co/RVF5tRwjza
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
