Starlink

1st July 2022

Where Elon Musk has led the way with electric cars, he now leads the way bringing satellite communications to the masses. In 2002, he founded SpaceX, his Space Exploration Technologies Corp, with the goal of reducing space transportation costs, to enable the colonization of Mars. As well as manufacturing spacecraft and providing space launches, SpaceX developed Starlink, a constellation of multiple satellites that orbit the planet close to Earth.

The beauty of all these lumps of metal floating around the Earth (2,400 in total … so far), is that they deliver high-speed, low-latency, high tech communications to remote and rural locations across the globe (currently 36 countries) and, apparently, have been instrumental in enabling critical communications in the Ukraine war.

If this sounds so high tech and futuristic, as to be out of reach for the common man/woman, you’d be wrong. Without sounding like an advert for Starlink, the price surprised me. Currently, this is the map of coverage with the light blue areas available now, medium blue has a waiting list and the light blue is coming soon. Sadly, it seems that China, Russia and Iran are out of luck …!