SpaceX is focused on connecting rural communities to Starlink – next satellite deployment is this weekend

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

SpaceX is deploying Starlink satellites to connect the world to affordable broadband internet. Millions of people living in rural areas across the world still lack access to the world wide web communication infrastructure that has revolutionized the 21^st century. Today the internet is not only just used for entertainment – the internet gives a user knowledge at their fingertips; It provides easy access to job opportunities, and enables a user to start a business that can reach out to thousands. Connecting rural areas around the globe to the network provides benefits to civilization as a whole.

SpaceX’s primary focus is to connect rural areas across the world where internet connection is unreliable and unavailable. With 648 Starlink satellites already in low Earth orbit, SpaceX targets to initially offer service in Northern United States and Canada this year, then expand to the rest of the world by 2021.

According to a report by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approximately 19 million Americans still lack access to fixed broadband service at reliable speeds. In rural and tribal areas in the United States nearly one-fourth of the population – 14.5 million people – lack access to the internet where they live. In July, SpaceX told the FCC it already initiated a private beta test of the Starlink network, and connected hundreds of users in multiple U.S. states, including tribal communities. “Starlink will serve the hardest-to-serve customers that telcos [telecommunication companies] otherwise have trouble doing with landlines or even with... cell towers,” SpaceX founder and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said.

Starlink customers would not only be supporting SpaceX’s goal to connect the rest of the world to the internet – customers will be supporting the company’s vision to change the course of humanity’s future by making life multi-planetary. The network’s revenue will provide additional funding to develop the spacecraft that will enable humans to live on the moon and Mars.

Customers will receive the satellites’ signal via user dish terminals and a Wi-Fi router. The FCC granted SpaceX the operation of 1 million dish terminals in the United States. SpaceX recently submitted a new request, seeking to increase the number of Starlink user terminals and Wi-Fi routers to 5 million. SpaceX says it “invested over $70 million developing and producing thousands of consumer user terminals per month” and “high-rate production soon to come.” SpaceX is asking potential customers to submit their e-mail via Starlink.com to receive updates of when the service will be available in their area.

STARLINK TERMINAL/Digital Illustration Created By: Erc X @ErcXspace via Twitter.

This weekend, SpaceX is scheduled to launch its twelfth fleet of Starlink satellites. Around 60 satellites will launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket on Sunday, August 30 at 10:08 a.m. EDT. from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This mission will increase the number of satellites in low Earth orbit to around 708. SpaceX officials previously stated that the Starlink constellation will be capable of providing “moderate” broadband coverage once there are 800 satellites in space. The entire constellation will consist of around 12,000 satellites. These satellites are relatively small compared to others in orbit; they feature a single solar array and four powerful phased array antennas that are flat, enabling it to beam signal to the ground in all directions without moving.