SPACE X

Elon Musk's internet project for everyone is very close to reality

SpaceX, by Elon Musk, plans to launch the first 60 of the nearly 12,000 satellites under the Starlink project on Wednesday to cover Earth with a high-speed internet signal. The launch of the Falcon 9, which carries the satellites inside, is scheduled for today from Cape Canaveral, Florida, between 10:30 p.m. and 12:30 p.m. (five hours less than in mainland Portugal).
Starlink would allow data to be transmitted from the Internet at about 50% faster than is physically possible with current fiber optic cables. The project, scheduled for completion in 2027, will consist of approximately 12,000 satellites - six times the number of all operational spacecraft now in orbit. The goal is to cover Earth with high-speed, low-latency, and affordable Internet access.
However, an easy task is not foreseen, as SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk himself admitted in a tweet published last Saturday, stating that "a lot of things will probably go wrong on the first mission."
Starlink is also designed to bring cheap, high-speed internet to remote areas, airplanes, ships and cars, as well as enabling international video conferencing and online games with virtually no delays. In February, SpaceX released its first two Starlink prototypes, which it named Tintin-A and Tintin-B. The test helped to demonstrate the basic concept and refine the design of the satellite.
In addition to taking the internet to remote and rural areas, the rollout of Starlink would bring enormous benefits to the financial sector. While the estimated cost of completing the project is $ 10 billion, Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX recently revealed that Starlink's revenues could reach $ 30 billion per year. In addition to SpaceX itself, other companies may have a lot to gain from the project, as Starlink could convey information about distant markets significantly faster than modern technology currently allows. M. F.