Starlink

Using free WiFi on airplanes almost never ends well. Iberia wants to change that with the help of Starlink

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IAG, the group to which Iberia belongs, has closed an agreement with Starlink to equip their planes with satellite connectivity. The Spanish airline promises that all its passengers They will be able to sail for free from 2026 with speeds comparable to those at home. Best free WiFi from the plane. Until now, wifi on airplanes It used to be slow, expensive or non-existent. With this agreement, Iberia ensures that it will offer free high-speed connection on all its flights, both short and long distance, regardless of the class in which the passenger travels. According to the company, Starlink technology It will allow download speeds of up to 450 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 70 Mbps, enough to watch streaming series, work in the cloud or play online while flying. How Starlink works. The SpaceX network is based on thousands of satellites located in low Earth orbit, which reduces latency and allows coverage even in remote areas or areas with poor accessibility. This infrastructure is what gives Starlink an advantage over other air connectivity providers, which rely on slower geostationary satellites or limited ground connections. Beyond Iberia. The agreement is not limited to the Spanish airline. IAG will implement the service on more than 500 aircraft of its companies: Aer Lingus, British Airways, Vueling and Level. According to the matrix, this will make the group the European operator with the most aircraft equipped with high-speed Wi-Fi. The first plane with Starlink will begin flying in early 2026, according to the airline in your press release. Part of a broader bet. This movement is part of the Iberia Flight Plan 2030which includes 6,000 million euros in investments. Part of that budget is allocated to digitalization, artificial intelligence and the creation of the so-called ‘Iberia City’, an aeronautical innovation center. Luis Gallego, CEO of IAG, pointed out that “staying connected in flight is increasingly important for customers” and that this agreement demonstrates how the group works “together to drive innovation.” The Elon Musk factor. Starlink is owned by SpaceX, the aerospace company founded and run by Elon Musk. Although the technology has proven its effectiveness In other sectors, from rural areas without coverage to military operations in Ukraine, its integration into commercial aviation is still in the initial phase. IAG thus joins other airlines such as Qatar Airways or Hawaiian Airlines, which have already announced similar agreements with Starlink. Cover image | Alexander Schimmeck In Xataka | The inevitable increase in air travel is leading us to a reality: there are no places, no planes, no planet for so many tourists.

It has 2,000 Starlink antennas on the roofs

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Elon Musk filled the sky with satellites to deliver Internet to every corner of the globe, and the world has found all kinds of applications for the ubiquitous service. After the prison with clandestine antennas and the narcosubmarine connected to StarlinkMyanmar buildings covered in SpaceX satellite dishes arrive. Many of the scams that circulate on the Internet are coordinated within it, including the increasingly common romance frauds. More than 2,000 Starlink antennas. Despite efforts by authorities in China and Thailand to root them out, Burmese “fraud factories” remain operational and are more technologically advanced than ever. Responsible for scamming billions of dollars from victims around the world, these guarded buildings near the Myanmar-Thailand border have their roofs covered in Starlink antennas. According to a Australian Strategic Policy Institute reportoperators replaced ground connectivity with Starlink terminals after allegedly being dismantled by local militias. Satellite images from February 18, just two weeks after the raid, already showed more than 1,000 satellite Internet service antennas. By May, Thai intelligence estimated that the number exceeded 2,000 antennas. What are these centers? In the February police operation, nearly 7,000 people were freed from a brutal system that forced them to run investment scams known as “pig butchering” and online romantic scams. A AFP investigation It tells what was experienced inside through a young Chinese man, Sun, freed after Beijing’s intervention. Lured by the false promise of a well-paying job in Thailand to support his family, Sun was kidnapped and sold to a scam center in Myawaddy, Myanmar for $20,000. Their job was to send fraudulent messages to targets in the United States following a script. One of these documents, 25 pages long, instructed scammers to adopt the persona of “Abby,” a nonexistent 35-year-old Japanese woman, to build a romantic bond with the victim. Once the target took the bait, he passed the contact on to a more specialized scammer. Sun relates that workers were beaten with electric batons and whips if they did not comply with orders or worked slowly. High fences, watchtowers, and armed guards deterred any escape attempts. Diesel generators and satellite Internet. These centers prospered in a border territory between Myanmar, Thailand, China and Laos that was already known as the golden triangle of drug trafficking and smuggling. Corruption and the power vacuum following the 2021 coup in Myanmar have allowed criminal syndicates to operate with almost total impunity and autonomy. Starlink’s ubiquitous coverage, combined with diesel generatorshas allowed these centers to be incredibly self-sufficient. They no longer depend on Myanmar’s unstable power and telecommunications network. Now they can operate almost anywhere, which is making them difficult to eradicate. Although the permissiveness of the Burmese militias also helps. What SpaceX says. Despite warnings from California prosecutors and alarm expressed by American politicians, SpaceX has not commented on the matter. The situation has escalated to the Joint Economic Committee of the United States Congress, which has launched an investigation. SpaceX has already proven in Ukraine its ability to disable terminals in specific geographic areas, a technology known as geofencing. Applying a similar measure in the areas of Myanmar where these centers operate would have an immediate impact, and with global implications. In the United States alone, losses from these types of scams amounted to $10 billion last year, an increase of 66% over the previous year. Starlink has played such an important role that the service, which is not officially licensed in Myanmar, has gone from not being on the country’s list of internet providers to being number one. Image | ASPI In Xataka | Facebook has become a drain for love scams: Morata’s crime is just the extreme example

It was practically impossible for a satellite to “ruin” the photo of another satellite. With Starlink already go twice

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Until recently, the idea that a terrestrial observation satellite accidentally captured another satellite in the flight was as an unlikely coincidence as finding a needle in a haystack. Space is an immense emptiness and The satellites move very quickly. But in the last year we have witnessed this phenomenon twice. And on both occasions, the protagonist has been a Spacex Starlink satellite. In a secret military base in China. On August 21, one of the new Satellites WorldView Legion of Maxar It passed over the Gobi desert, in China, with the aim of photographing the Dingxin Air Base: a high secret installation where China proves its most advanced fighters. The satellite achieved the image, but an unexpected intruder appears in it. A silver ship with two large solar panels and three spectra of colors cross Maxar’s photo, creating what an executive of the company described on LinkedIn as “accidental art.” What we see is actually a single satellite, the Starlink 33828immortalized in different wavelengths on one of the most sensitive places of the Chinese army. The trick is in the camera. The curious multicolored image is explained by how observation satellites and the incredible speed at orbit move. These satellites do not take a single image, but a series of images in different spectral bands almost simultaneously: a high resolution (panchromatic) and several in different colors (red, green, blue …) of lower quality. Then, an algorithm merges all this information to create the final photo, already clearly color. The problem of that “almost simultaneously” is almost. When the objective is the earth, which is relatively still with respect to the satellite, the system works perfectly. But when another satellite crosses in the field of vision at a relative speed of almost 1,400 meters per second (about 5,000 km/h), the camera captures it in a slightly different position in each of the color layers. The result is that spectral effect with several colored shadows. The Google Maps Starlink. This is the second time that a Starlink satellite accidentally sneaks into an alien photo. As We count in April 2025a Reddit user discovered a very similar effect on a Google Maps image on a rural Texas area. On that occasion, the photo was taken by a Pleaiades European satellite, and the result was even clearer: five silhouettes of the same object, corresponding to the close, red, blue, green and pancromatic infrared bands. The enormous amount of satellites in low orbit is turning an astronomically unlikely event into a new normality. Why are Starlink satellites. Because they are a majority. Spacex already has More than 8,300 Starlink in orbitmore than all other satellite constellations together. With its plans to expand the network to more than 30,000, the probability that one of them is crossed in the viewfinder of another satellite is growing. But also, they fly low. To offer a low latency internet connection, the Starlink operate about 500 km altitude in the low terrestrial orbit. This is the same orbital “highway” that most use the earth’s observation satellites, such as the Worldview Legion of Maxar (which are 518 km). His paths are destined to cross. Beyond the visual anecdote, these images are the symptom that the low orbit is increasingly congested, which forces perform constant evasion maneuvers To prevent collisions. Image | Maxar In Xataka | What types of satellites exist: guide not to get lost in a gigantic network of which we are increasingly dependent

Flight 10 was a success and showed that the rocket can launch Starlink satellites

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After Three failed attempts And the occasional catastrophic explosion, Spacex can breathe calm. He Starship’s tenth test flight He has fulfilled all the objectives that until now had resisted. Short. He larger rocket in the world Not only did it take off and reached space. He also displayed his first payload, a engine in vacuum re -founded and survived an infernal reentry to merit in a controlled way in the Indian Ocean. Starship’s tenth test flight demonstrates that Spacex’s iterative design still works. And although the vision of a totally reusable ship to colonize Mars is still far, Starship can already start throwing Starlink satellites. A promising start. At the scheduled time, the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy propeller came alive, promoting with a deafening rumble the mole of more than 120 meters high. Although one of the engines failed halfway, it did not affect the mission at all, demonstrating the redundancy of the system. As he burned his 4,900 tons of propellant, the huge Starship rocket exceeded the phase of greater aerodynamic stress and hot separation, lighting the motors from the upper stage before separating. The Super Heavy began its return, but this time it did not look for a soft landing, but to complete a series of risky maneuvers. A skyscraper floating in the air. Booster 16 successfully performed its air in the air to change trajectory. After planning for a few minutes with its aerodynamic grilles and approaching the Gulf of Mexico, intentionally deactivated one of its central engines to test if a backup engine could take over. The most incredible moment came just after, when the 70 -meter rocket used two engines to fly over the ocean in stationary flight before turning off and meriting. As A commentator said“A 20 -story building in the air has just floated.” A milestone that demonstrates to what extent Spacex has controlled the capture of the super heavy with the launch tower, although the reentry is hard. The dispenser fish in action. While the Super Heavy completed its mission, the Starship 37 ship continued on its way to space. Once in his suborbital trajectory, the time for two of the most anticipated tests of the day came. First, the opening of the load bay and the first deployment of a payload. Using a mechanism that Remember a caramel dispenser fishthe ship eject one by one eight Starlink satellite simulators. This test is essential, since Starship’s future as a heavy load vehicle depends on it. Everything ready to launch Starlinks. Spacex plans to launch up to 60 Starlink V3 satellites in future Starship missions, adding 60 tbps capacity to the constellation with each launch, A more than 20 times higher figure to which a Falcon 9 can carry with the current V2 Mini. The rocket is able to reach orbit, display load (yes, it takes a minute per satellite) and then exorbitant. Flight 10 has returned to demonstrate the redempted of a huster engine in a vacuum. This capacity is indispensable to stop the rocket in a controlled way or perform a translunar injection for NASA Artemis missions. Surviving hell to tell. After an hour of flight, Starship began his reentry in the Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds. This is the time when the previous missions had failed. On this flight, however, the ship showed a robustness that reminds of the first releases. Although the cameras on board showed visible damage (some parts of the ailerons burned and the engines bay suffered a small explosion), the crucial thing is that Starship maintained aerodynamic control throughout the descent. Guided by its spoilers, the incandescent plasma of the resentment with total stability furrowed. The flight culminated with gentle and controlled ameter In the Indian Ocean. Although the ship was quite chamuscada, the simple fact of having completed the reentry and frightening in this way after three consecutive failures is a gigantic victory for Spacex. It is the definitive proof that Starship can start with Starlink launches. Image | Spacex Em xataka | It was hired by Spacex at age 14. Now, with 16, the young genius has turned his back on Elon Musk to go to Wall Street

China already thinks about strategies to neutralize Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites. Your plan: submarines and powerful lasers

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Chinese scientists have developed strategies to neutralize the Starlink Satellite Network of Elon Musk, which Beijing considers a military threat. According to the medium The Independentamong the proposed measures are furtive submarines equipped with spatial lasers, attack satellites with ionic propellants and sabotage of the supply chain. An analysis of 64 academic articles published in Chinese magazines reveals the concern of the Asian country for Spacex’s spatial domain. Why worries so much Starlink. The constellation of satellites carried out by Elon Musk controls two thirds of all active satellites in the world, with more than 8,000 operational units. Its ability to provide fast and cheap connectivity anywhere on the planet, including remote areas, makes it a strategic tool. Chinese researchers They fear that the United States will use it as a military weapon after checking its effectiveness in Ukraine, where facilitated the communications of the Ukrainian army and the control of combat drones. What China poses. Several Chinese researchers and scientists have proposed multiple approaches To counteract Starlink. Engineers of the Popular Liberation Army suggest creating a fleet of spy satellites that follow those of Musk, collecting signals and using corrosive materials to damage their batteries. Other researchers propose optical telescopes to monitor the network, generation of false objectives through Deepfakes and the use of powerful lasers to burn equipment. They have also identified vulnerabilities in the Spacex supply chain, which has more than 140 main suppliers. They will not only be countermeasted. Beijing is not limited to planning countermeasures: it is building its own alternative. In 2021 the Chinese state company created SATNET To develop Guowang, a military megaconstellation that already has 60 operational satellites of the 13,000 planned. In parallel, The Qianfan companysupported by the Shanghai government, has launched 90 satellites of the planned 15,000 and already competes for contracts in Brazil, Kazakhstan, Malaysia and several African countries. The geopolitical context. The Ukraine War marked a turning point in Starlink’s global perception. The conflict showed that the control of satellite communications can tip the balance. What worries China is that a single man like Musk can also interrupt critical services. The medium raises as an example that time in which the tycoon He denied his coverage For a Ukrainian counterattack in Crimea. This dependence on private actors He has not only alarmed Chinabut also to traditional allies of the United States such as the European Union, which invests billions in Your own Iris2 constellation. What comes now. The overwhelming domain of Starlink in space, which already operates in more than 140 countries and only has dead areas in North Korea, Iran and China, has triggered a undercover space race. While Amazon develops her Project Kuiper With just 78 satellites, China accelerate your programs To reduce Musk’s advantage. Interestingly, one of the papers of Chinese researchers simply had the following title: “Be careful with Starlink”. It is clear that space control will be an advantage for armed conflicts and commercial wars that are being released. Cover image | Spacex and Arthur Wang In Xataka | The US has realized how risky it is to continue pressing China. His reverse looks for a “face to face”

Starlink has made 144,000 maneuvers in six months to avoid collisions

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Starlink satellites executed 144,404 collision evasion maneuvers between December and May, according to SPACEX DATA LOCATED BEFORE THE FCC. That is equivalent to a maneuver every two minutes. Why is it important. Each evasion is an opportunity for human or technical error that could trigger a destructive chain reaction. Kessler syndrome – COLLISCES WASHING THAT WOULD MAKE A COMPLETE ORBITE – STARTS TO STOP SUMMARY FOR SCIENCE. The figures. Starlink has tripled its evasion maneuvers with respect to the previous period. To contextualize: Isro, the Indian Space Agencyhe has only made 122 maneuvers in 14 years. Between 2022 and 2023 he had whether Pico: 23. The context. The low land orbit has become a kind of highway. A saturated highway. Spacex has launched more than 6,000 satellitesand plan to deploy up to 42,000. Amazon, Oneweb and several countries prepare their own constellations. The democratization of space brings obvious benefits: global Internet, land observation, emergency communications. The problem is the hidden cost of orbital congestion. Between the lines. Spacex has asked for “uniform report standards” for the entire industry. Translation: We need clear play rules before someone causes a catastrophe that affects everyone. The threat. A single error can be translated into thousands of spatial garbage fragments traveling 28,000 km/h. In addition, each fragment becomes a projectile capable of destroying other satellites, which would create more fragments in a chain reaction. And now what. The industry is developing autonomous evasion systems with which They promise to reduce maneuvers up to 50%. But the real solution and long term goes through international regulation and coordination between operators. The space is immense, but not infinite. Maybe it’s time to learn to share it. In Xataka | He cheated his wife, the army and the Government of Ireland: the incredible history of the man who passed through Astronaut Outstanding image | Spacex

We have found the first narcosubmarino with Starlink. It is a new step in drug logistics

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The drug trafficking industry It has an important challenge that does not go through producing the drug, but to distribute it. Of conventional networks infiltrating the product in commercial vehicles or using ‘mules‘, the drug traffickers have controlled huge fleets of submarines. These craft vehicles baptized as ‘Narcosubmarino’ have experienced a boom In recent years, and the striking thing is that they are updating in terms of technology. So much that a narcosubmarino without a crew that is controlled at a distance, thanks to StarlinkElon Musk’s satellite Internet network. And, obviously, it is a new headache for Maritime authorities. Short. It was a few days ago when Colombia’s Navy reported On a strange finding that made the first week of April: a narcosubmarino ‘stuck’ to a boat that had the capacity to transport ton and average drug. Neither by size nor by capacity was a ship that caught attention, since in recent years the capacity of this type of boats has increased to transport more drugs. What was striking was the antenna in the front. In that area He was A Starlink antenna, Elon Musk’s Internet service for which every time More satellites are displayed To increase global coverage, and we can imagine the usefulness of such a system in the operations that a narcosubmarino can perform. Advanced remote control. No crew was found, so it is speculated that this connection with Starlink would allow new generation drug traffickers operate semi -autonomous. That is, someone on land would perform the functions of remote controller, assuming a huge advantage if the authorities intercept the ship because they would be carried out with the cargo, yes, but not with human operators. Now, apart from logistics advantage and facilities when navigating any type of water thanks to that global satellite connection, the authorities estimate that this technology represents a major challenge for anti -drug forces because it will make them more difficult to track. Narcosubmarine are not real submarines in many cases, but semi -submersible that can escape the ‘vision’ of radars, and without humans inside, they can also go more unnoticed to tracking systems. In addition to the Starlink system, the ship has two cameras, an internal to monitor both the transmission and the engine and an external one for the vision of the trajectory and that the operator can avoid obstacles. Of all sizes. Having caught a narcosubmarino for remote control thanks to Starlink supposes One more step in the drug trafficking network and demonstrates how their vehicles are adapting thanks to the latest technology in order to be more efficient. Because the one seized by the Colombian Navy was empty and estimate that it was a proof unit, but that there is already something like that, surely, it implies that there is more on their way. Because if something is clear, they are investing in the construction of these ships. It is estimated that, in 2009 there were about eight vehicles of this style, a figure that reached the 180 estimated in 2020. Obviously, there are many gray in all this because they are estimates. World Network. Many of those narcosubmarinos are usually precarious ships with a short useful life, but also There are more sophisticated And in recent years we have seen semi -submersible Greater and sophisticatedsome reaching 30 meters long with designs very, very similar to the submarines used by world armies. In fact, a few months ago Colombia’s Navy intercepted A ship that had the Australian or Neozelands coasts as an objective, implying that there is no country that escapes Colombian drug trafficking networks, consolidated as the heart of cocaine world imposing increase in production These last years. As much as it may be, and although it has only been a test, that a narcosubmarino has already caught with Starlink assumes that the drug traffickers are already ‘Armando’ with vehicles capable of operating remotely, even in areas to which the traditional coverage does not reach, with all that it implies. And compared to the first vehicles in the early 90s, It is a huge step and a great challenge for the authorities. Image | Wikideas1 In Xataka | The cartels have a vehicle that seems taken from Mad Max: it is called “Narcotanque” and is a nightmare in Mexico

We are in 2025 and the Wi -Fi of the airplanes is still terrible. Starlink is demonstrating that we are at the turning point

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June 30, 2016. BBC publishes an article called: How does the Wi -Fi work in the airplanes and why is it so bad? Almost 10 years later, we are almost in the same place. The Earth has revolved for almost a decade but in terms of connecting to Internet networks from the air it seems that we are completely stagnant. Or it seemed. 2016. “Some compare their speed with that of the beginning of the Internet, when, with the soundtrack of the atrocious beep of the modem, they had to be put on patience while any page was loaded.” With this paragraph Yolanda Valery for BBC In 2016 what was the experience of trying to connect to the Internet from the air. In that same article it was explained that connecting to the Internet from a flight guaranteed a certain guarantee to do very basic connected tasks, such as sending an email. But it was also mentioned that you could already forget to see a content in streaming Or, at least, assume that it was going to be a really tedious experience. We remain the same. In 2016, the offer of a wifi on board was relatively recent. In 2013 we told you that Iberia made this service available to the client at a price of five euros … for five megas. Shortly after, Enrique Dans narrated his experience In an Iberia plane and pointed out that the option was really interesting but that the result was very bad. And even raised if he had to be offered under the conditions of that time. Already in 2017, in Xataka We wondered why we still have no wifi in all airplanes. And we could say the same right now, with a good handful of airplanes that do not offer it … and above all: those who offer it and serve little or nothing. If we enter On Iberia’s own page We verify that in its reference to the connection packages it is specified that allow “Internet navigation, messenger, email, download and sending documents”. That is, tasks that require poor discharge speed. And they emphasize that it is “it is possible that during some moments of the trip the signal can come weakened” or that it lends itself with “three different suppliers, so you can experience differences between one flight or another.” Why is it so bad? The main reason why the Wi -Fi in the airplanes is so bad is how the Internet connection is obtained. You can take “global, satellite or land coverage,” depending on the flight, they point out on the Iberia website. This means that the plane receiver can connect to telephone antennas or satellites if the latter are not available. On a transatlantic flight, that connection is more unstable since Terrestrial antennas are far away. It only remains to be connected to a satellite so that the shipment and reception of data is complicated. First because the distance is much broader than when we have our feet on the floor and, second, because the plane moves hundreds of kilometers per hour, which complicates the reception and sending of the data. The big problem is that although the bandwidths that users have to share are now the demands of applications. Not only is the Quality of the images we load on Instagramis also the huge amount of data that an application like Netflix needs to play your streaming videos. Already in 2020, in Xataka We estimated that one hour sailing on this platform consumes between one and seven GB (depending on quality). A turning point? Andrew J. Hawkins explains in The Verge that the time may have come to say goodbye to these connections. In the aforementioned article, it indicates its experience aboard an E-175 Embraer, a 88-seat narrow fuselage plane that United Airlines uses for short flights. This, specifically, lasted 90 minutes. The plane is one of the first connected to Starlink and, in fact, will begin offering on May 15. The figures collected are highly hopeful. Connected to the airport Wi -Fi, Hawkins said navigating with a 305 Mbps discharge and a load of 249. The latency was 5 ms. During the flight, the speed was 196 Mbps of discharge and 27.3 Mbps of load with a latency of 19 ms. The discharge speed is close to the experience before climbing to the plane and although the figures are remote from what it offers on land, they are notable compared to those we had so far. During the whole flight. Hawkins breaks another spear in favor of the system and United Airlines: the wifi was active throughout the flight. “The service works from the door to the door, not only above 10,000 feet, restriction under which some other systems operate. As soon as I sat, they told me to connect to the Wi-Fi using United mobile application. “ In fact, in your article to The VergeThe author reflects the speeds during takeoff (234.8 Mbps of discharge and 14.9 Mbps of load with a latency of 19 ms) and the landing (72.6 Mbps of discharge, 26.1 Mbps of load and 90 ms of latency) when the worst data was collected. The time, despite this, would be brief because as soon as the plane touched earth again offered good figures with 231.5 Mbps of discharge. Although, this time, with the worst load data with only 3.01. Well to watch movies. But not so much to work. Because Hawking himself points out that he could use Instagram and Tiktok, Disney Plus, follow the ceremony of the new Pope for CNN or watch a live match “with a crystalline image quality.” However, the result was much less impressive when loading a file on Google Drive that took him seven minutes. Explains that this is because Starlink’s own infrastructure It is designed to download content and not so much to raise it, hence the difference in figures between the two processes. Differential. How much would you be willing to pay … Read more

Starlink has been growing without competition for six years. Now an ambitious competitor has started throwing satellites: Amazon

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In the early hours First 27 operational satellites of the Kuiper constellation of Amazon. Starlink is at last company. An ambitious competitor. Project Kuiper was born in 2018, a year before Spacex launched the first 60 satellites of its Starlink constellation, which offers broadband satellite Internet. However, waiting for the vulcan rockets of ULA and New Glenn de Blue Origin to be available, Amazon only He had launched two test satellites… until now. The technological giant has finally began to deploy its initial constellation of 3,232 satellites in the low terrestrial orbit (between 590 and 630 km of altitude) to offer low latency connections in places where terrestrial networks do not arrive or are insufficient. When available, The service will have plans of 100 Mbps, 400 Mbps and up to 1 GBPS speed. Curves come. Although this launch marks Kuiper’s operational start, Amazon is still exposed to several challenges. The main is the time: the project has been delayed about its calendar and its FCC license for approximately one year have half of the constellation (1,618 satellites) In orbit for July 2026, a date that seems difficult to meet without an extension, since the company does not manufacture its own rockets like Spacex. Kuiper’s rockets. While Blue Origin is a company by Jeff Bezos and there is, say, certain synergies between both companies (in addition to a well -known enmity with Elon Musk), His New Glenn orbital rocket has only flown onceand has not yet managed to demonstrate its ability to land. Reuse has been fundamental in Starlink’s success: the Falcon 9 rocket, which Spacex partially recovers, has launched more than 8,000 Starlink satellites in six years. Amazon’s constellation depends to such a third party that Amazon made the “major Commercial acquisition of launch vehicles of the story “in 2022. Only with ULA has contracts to launch another seven atlas and up to 38 Vulcan. It has also reached agreements with Arianegroup to use the European rocket Ariane 6 and, of course, with Blue Origin to use the New Glenn; the only one with the capacity to land of the four pitchers. China and Europe go to their roll. Despite the difficulties, Kuiper is the first Starlink competitor who has a financial muscle at Spacex, provided that Amazon is willing to play in the long term. In Europe we have an already quite advanced commercial constellation, but that plays in another league. Oneweb of Eutelsat operates a constellation of about 630 Leo satellites, but its approach is mainly B2B and government, and its satellite density is much less than that of Starlink. China also goes to its roll, but it is deploying megaconstellations that could harm Starlink and Amazon. Spacesail already has satellites in orbit and plans to display 648 by 2025, with the aim of growing up to 15,000 satellites by 2030, with which could offer services up to 30% cheaper than Starlink in markets like Brazil. To this price war are added to others Chinese projects like Honguhu 3 either Guowangadding tens of thousands of satellites who will begin to cross the night sky without stopping. Image | ULA, Amazon In Xataka | Spacex has launched 8,000 Starlink satellites in five years, but they are not enough. And we are beginning to understand why

Someone has found a satellite for the first time on Google Maps. All tracks point to a Starlink satellite

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There are people who spend hours exploring the most remote corners of the planet in the satellite photos of Google Maps, looking for surprising findings. But this time the surprise was not on earth, but in space. It is not a plane, it is a satellite. It is easy to find airplanes on Google Maps or Google Earth. Every day they fly between 100,000 and 120,000 planes worldwide. Not even poachers, such as bomber B-2, are safe from the satellite cameras that nourish Google maps with their images. The B-2 He was hunted in full flight A few years ago. But the bet has just risen with the most recent finding of A REDDIT user In coordinates 33 ° 44’39.0 “N 96 ° 44’46.2” W.: A rural Texas area, north of the city of Dallas. It is a satellite orbiting the land more than 27,000 kilometers per hour, which leaves the military plane at the height of a snail. Five colored spectra. The photo was taken on November 30, 2024 by a Pleiades European observation satellite, developed by Airbus. It is a picture that perhaps would have gone unnoticed if it were not for the five silhouettes of different colors that seem to be ghosts of the same satellite. It is actually the same satellite seen in five spectral bands. The black silhouette, captured first, is the satellite seen in the near infrared. They are followed by the red silhouette, the blue silhouette and the green silhouette, each captured with a different color filter in an instant infinitesimally different. Finally, the most clear silhouette of all, a pancromatic image of the satellite. The five satellite spectra on Google Maps Why do you look like this? It is a visual representation of two different phenomena: how quickly the objects move in the land low orbit, and how the observation satellites take their photos. They do not take a single photo, but several catches in different spectral bands (nearby infrared, red, blue, green and a pancromatic image on gray scale). Next, these images are combine with a Pansharpening algorithm To create a full color photo. Normally from the ground, which is still with respect to the satellite. However, this satellite moved almost eight kilometers per second, which caused the camera to capture it at five different points in the very brief moment in which the capture occurred. A Starlink satellite. Both Reddit users Like astrophysic Jonathan McDowell They believe it is a Spacex Starlink satellite. Unlike the first generation Starlink (which had a single solar panel), the V2 Mini have two large lateral solar panels that give them a wingspan of about 30 meters. According to McDowell, presumably is the Starlink 31147. It is not strange that the first satellite that has been found in Google Maps is a Starlink. Most satellites travel above 500 km so as not to have the atmospheric braking compensate, friction with the air that makes them end up resenting in the atmosphere. But the Starlink are launched at this point to offer a Global Low Latency Internet coverageassuming that will have to be replaced Every five years. 7,200 and up. Today there is about 7,200 Starlink satellites Orbiting the Earth (more than all the other constellations of combined satellites), thanks to Spacex’s ability to land the propellers of their rockets. That is why the investigations pointed from the beginning to Google Maps was a Starlink. Since Spacex has plans for Grow your network to a megaconstellation of 30,000 satellitesmost likely this is not the last Starlink that appears on Google Maps and other satellite photos, in the same way that it is increasingly common to see them in the night sky when we raise the view from below. Images | Google, Airbus Defense and Space In Xataka | Spacex has launched 8,000 Starlink satellites in five years, but they are not enough. And we are beginning to understand why

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