SpaceXs Starlink: Global Internet Begins; up to 42,000 Satellites Circling the Earth

[jeff of pa]

I was wondering Why it seems almost every Day they sent up a rocket that Looks Identical
to the Last one, Yet call it Live. I Thought they were Lying and calling it Live even though it was the Same one they sent up
an hour ago.

I Haven't been interested in Big Tech so this is the First I heard of This

No Idea how many others Here have been Unaware of this Plan,

[Madmox]

Though clouding the earth in space junk is all bad, selfishly I hope Starlink is amazing. I live out in the hinterland and my options for Internet are few and far between and all garbage. It is all data capped. Generally runs about 150 bucks a month and is SLOW. So if Elon can do something to potentially break up the broadband cabal I am all for it. Apparently they’ve been pulling 1 GBPS speed with solid latency. I am all for it. Especially for those of us that don’t even have remotely good options now.

[jeff of pa]

I've always Had Decent Service here. Comcast/xfinity is always Claiming they Sped things Up, but I can't tell.
I Push a Button It opens But Seriously
How much faster can it Get ? Reading my Mind and Opening before I push the Button ?

Yes occasionally things Slow Down, But it's Never long Enough to get upset over.

I have used dialup,, Before I had my Own Computer. That was Bad !
Not sure if That exists Today

[Madmox]

I've always Had Decent Service here. Comcast/xfinity is always Claiming they Sped things Up, But Seriously
How much faster can it Get ? Reading my Mind and Opening before I push the Button ?

Yes occasionally things Slow Down, But it's Never long Enough to get upset over.

I have used dialup,, Before I had my Own Computer. That was Bad !
Not sure if That exists Today

I live up on a mountain and our equivalent to comcast stops at the bottom of the hill about 5 miles down. That leaves us with HughesNet satellite or point to point microwave. Hughesnet was awful. They throttle you after 150 gb of data. Which the kids can blow through in 3 days if you let them, and streaming video was always dicey but after the pandemic started it REALLY crawled. We were pulling barely 1.7 mbps which is significantly slower than DSL. Not to mention it was expensive. We are on microwave now and it’s FAR better than HughesNet but still very expensive.

[DeepseekerADS]

In 1983 I first got on-line with Compuserve (I guess), but it was for the stock market.

Lost my butt

[jeff of pa]

[pepperj]

How fast is you speed? Lots of options at your fingertips for a speed test.
https://www.speedtest.net
Here's a screen shot of my speed.

Now lets put this into perceptive I'm doing 14.13 MPH and the minimum speed for fibre optic is 1000 MPH!
So while we watch the spinning whirl wheel of life while paying for a gold service and getting lead.

Folks that have good service will never understand what we rural are dealing with.

The night skies will never be as they were, things will block and move about-and the star gazers will have to deal with it.

[DiggerKid2003]

How fast is you speed? Lots of options at your fingertips for a speed test.
https://www.speedtest.net
Here's a screen shot of my speed.

Now lets put this into perceptive I'm doing 14.13 MPH and the minimum speed for fibre optic is 1000 MPH!
So while we watch the spinning whirl wheel of life while paying for a gold service and getting lead.

Folks that have good service will never understand what we rural are dealing with.

The night skies will never be as they were, things will block and move about-and the star gazers will have to deal with it.

We get about the same ping here, 800 is pretty normal. We’re lucky if we get above 1mbps download, and half that upload. If this Starlink doesn’t work out, then we’re stuck with this.

[Madmox]

This is where we are at since we changed to point to point microwave. Which is about 400 million times better than when we are on Exede with satellite. BUT they still data cap us and charge a buck a GB after you hit the cap which adds up fast. We have a satellite dish 200’ up in a Redwood Tree so it can see the transmitter on the cell tower across the valley.

[Treasure_Hunter]

They are live launches, I can see them from my home if the sky isn't clouded over. They also do reuse the first stage boosters after they land on the barge.

[Challenger007]

I think the quality of satellite communications will improve with the increase in the number of satellites in low-earth orbit. Today, a lot of companies have emerged that will compete with the current leaders in the near future. Personally, I see the prospects for this company (deleted, no spam links!), but who knows what other companies will appear on the market and will defend their right to explore space?

[TommyJ]

We get about the same ping here, 800 is pretty normal. We’re lucky if we get above 1mbps download and half that upload. If this Starlink doesn’t work out, then we’re stuck with this.

Someone has already written about this. There are a lot of new players in this market now. If the big players do not fulfill their promises, then newcomers will have a chance to prove themselves. In this sense, all is not lost yet. Several new private (!) Space companies appear every year. I think they threw a link to Skyrora there. At least this is the company I heard about that they are going to be engaged in putting small satellites into orbit.
I think there is still someone, I just don't know. Throw in your options, it will be interesting to read

[DizzyDigger]

Although I live in a very rural area, we are lucky enough to have
an updated cable tv system including high-speed Internet. I've
got Directv, so don't need the tv, but do pay handsomely for
the HS Internet.

Ran the test and I got 76Mbps download, and 6.5 Mbps upload.

[jeff of pa]

Starlink: first connection, speed test, testing during 30,000ft cloud cover and bad weather

[alan m]

They are live launches, I can see them from my home if the sky isn't clouded over. They also do reuse the first stage boosters after they land on the barge.

I do not understand why they reuse the first stage, unless it is purely for show.
the first stage suffers the most stress during launch, it requires a huge effort to make it flight worthy after recovery.
does anyone remember when NASA was reusing booster rockets for the space shuttle?
The technology is impressive, but it has the same practicality as did the launching of a red Tesla car into space, it is just Musk showing off......one day, it will cost someones life.