Starlink

Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by American company SpaceX[ to provide satellite Internet access. The constellation will consist of thousands of mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) , working in combination with ground transceivers. SpaceX also plans to sell some of the satellites for military, scientific, or exploratory purposes.

Concerns have been raised about the long-term danger of space junk resulting from placing thousands of satellites in orbits above 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) and a possible impact on astronomy, although SpaceX is reportedly attempting to solve the latter issue.

The total cost of the decade-long project to design, build, and deploy the constellation was estimated by SpaceX in May 2018 to be about US$10 billion. Product development began in 2015, with the first two prototype test-flight satellites launched in February 2018. A second set of test satellites and the first large deployment of a piece of the constellation occurred on 24 May 2019 UTC when the first 60 operational satellites were launched. The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses the Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and on-orbit control operations.

As of February 2020, SpaceX is targeting service in the Northern U.S. and Canada in 2020, rapidly expanding to near-global coverage of the populated world by 2021. However, these are only internal projections and not set dates.