Ghana’s Ministry of Communications & Digitisation has decided to permit SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service to operate. The decision came a week after major disruption to four undersea high-volume broadband cables. The disruption caused considerable difficulties for banking, business and consumers throughout Ghana. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, the country’s minister of communications, made the announcement. “We have licensed […]

Data from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell shows that 6,011 SpaceX ‘Starlink’ broadband satellites have been launched as at March 16th. He adds that 5,614 are still in orbit, of which 64 appear failed and 122 appear to be in the process of deliberate retirement. SpaceX launched this latest batch of 23 satellites into orbit on March […]

There were 3.3 million people viewing SpaceX’s live web-feed of its March 14th Starship launch, plus many, many millions watching via the world’s news channels as the rocket blasted off on its record-breaking flight. However, the FAA almost immediately issued an investigation order into what it said was a “mishap”. Elon Musk is perhaps not […]

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has approved a SpaceX request to fit 7,500 of its satellites with E-band frequencies. The 7,500 are not extra satellites but are within the wider deployment of planned Starlink ‘Gen-2’ craft. SpaceX proposes to operate in the E-band for communications between satellites and gateway earth stations. The FCC order states: […]

Elon Musk’s Starlink says it now has “more than 2.6 million customers”, and up more than 300,000 in the last 11 weeks. The overall growth rate has been extremely steady and if it continues then Starlink could have 3.5-3.7 million subscribers/users by the end of this year. Meanwhile, two back-to-back launches of Starlink satellites have […]

SpaceX’s Starlink broadband by satellite service is now connecting more than 200,000 customers and counting across Australia, says the Elon Musk-owned business. The news prompted a slew of comments on X from India, where potential subscribers are waiting for the service to be granted permission to operate. Starlink’s numbers – as at December 31st 2023 […]

SpaceX has announced that the third test flight of its Starship giant ‘Super Heavy’ rocket, subject to the usual weather considerations, will happen on March 14th. Recent days have seen various final tests and rehearsals take place at the Boca Chica launch site and the FAA and other national agencies (for wildlife and environmental impact) […]

SpaceX broke a batch of records on the March 3rd-4th weekend. In a 20-hour period it launched the Dragon ‘Crew-8’ group of astronauts to the International Space Station. It also launched a large batch of 53 scientific satellites on its latest Transporter mission, and placed another group of 23 of its own Starlink satellites into […]

Swiss-owned MSC Cruises has completed equipping two-thirds of its fleet with Starlink onboard terminals. MSC says the whole fleet will be equipped with Starlink by May this year. The low earth orbit solution is currently providing faster internet speeds, improved wi-fi in cabins and public spaces, reduced latency levels and lower operational costs for 15 […]

On February 27th 2023, SpaceX it launched its first batch of its Starlink Version-2 satellites – 21 of them were launched into their transfer orbits. However, SpaceX has steadily increased the number of these V2 craft on each rocket. A few months after that debut launch it managed to carry an extra satellites, and placing […]