SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

formvoltron

soooo good that they'll burn up one day and this nonsense can finally end. investors provide infinite capital to nonsense projects so that the showman can create an endless show that will attract new nonsense capital. sorry but already in rural morocco they have 200 mbit internet for 20 bucks a month. Yes there are some 6 wheeled vehicles roaming the planet that might really benefit from these 100k satellites. but for 99.9% of everyone else? we're good!

ck2

no, just no make them pre-pay a multi-trillion cleanup and cancer fund for all the toxic waste, not just the launches but pollution burning up in the atmosphere * https://satellitemap.space/ * https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-space-orbit-satellit... * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48787042

consumer451

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have <.1% the money to spend on such things. However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

1234letshaveatw

Musk is nothing if not ambitious

ggoo

Soon enough these will start showing ads - I pray for our night sky.

prescriptivist

I spent last weekend under some of the darkest sky you'll find in the eastern US. Miles from cell service. I had a starlink portable with me and it was nice to get some service and stay in touch, but to watch the sky is to see satellites everywhere. I've spent a dozen or so weeklong stretches in the last few years completely off grid, only connection being bringing up the inReach once a day. At this point I actually get anxiety at the end of such a trip, knowing that I'm going to be wading through a morass of notifications and slack/email/texts. Doing a once or twice a day sync via starlink didn't really bother me so much when I'm out in the backcountry this last trip. I'd love to be rid of all of it, but that's not how the world works today.

seydor

Is that because China applied to launch 200000 satellites?

porphyra

One cool thing about Starlink is that it can potentially improve latency across the world. In optical fibers the light travels only two thirds as fast due to the index of refraction. But in space you can use a laser to send the data in a straight line in a vacuum.

arjie

Boy it's going to be exciting when we can get Internet access literally everywhere. Excited for humanity's return to space infrastructure!

croes

So SpaceX is just an overvalued internet provider?

SubiculumCode

So, at some point, will our devices connect to their corporate offices in any environment, even without providing access to your network, short of putting it inside a Faraday Cage?

0x59

How could this not end poorly? I cant think of one realistic scenario where there world benefits.

spullara

I think most of this thread is missing the part where this will also work for cellphones and give you truly global coverage.

tim-tday

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome I wonder what spacex will be worth when launching satellites is impossible for a couple hundred years.

dhfbshfbu4u3

They’ll need this for their orbital data centers (aka Starmind) https://www.spacex.com/spacexai/starmind Elon really needs to drop some cash on Iain Bank’s family, if he’s going to keep stealing ideas/names for his empire.

zakki

Will it make our sky "cloudy" most of the time?

drnick1

Last time I checked, you couldn't get a public IPv4 through Starlink, let alone a fixed one. This makes it a non-starter as a backup link for self-hosters, a use case it is well suited for.

daniel_iversen

Surely it’ll be an issue some day for other space activities with all the SpaceX kit up there? I know space is very large :) but surely it’d be hard to scan, calculate and control trajectories of millions of orbiting tiny things when you’re launching rockets and things? A spacex satellite almost crashed into the Chinese space station some years ago and the Chinese had to perform an evasive manoeuvre I believe

kome

i want to see a dark sky at night

chasd00

Starlink is going to become a phone carrier that doesn’t have to pay for pole or tower access. This is the real story, so long att, verizon, and T-Mobile. Starlink is going to beat them on price and availability. Just think, no international calling fees or hassle and cheaper mobile rates.