SpaceX launches a record-breaking mission, sends laser-linked Starlink satellites to the polar orbit

-

-Advertisement-

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Space Port Sation, Florida — SpaceX made history again by sending a record number of 143 satellites on a single mission to the lower Earth orbit yesterday. The record was previously held by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) with 103 satellites on a single launch.

Among these were 10 SpaceX Starlink satellites that are deployed to the Polar Orbit (see animation below for explanation). This will make high-speed internet available in the most remote polar locations of our planet.

The SmallSat rideshare program by SpaceX enables customers in launching their satellites to low Earth orbit (LEO) with a budget as low as $1M. In this dedicated launch, most of the small satellites were of SpaceX customers, in the past, SpaceX has been making space for a small number of customer satellites with the Starlink constellation satellites.

Animation of a satellite in polar orbit. Source: Wikimedia Commons by Brandir (CC by SA).
Tesla Accessories by EVANNEX.
– Sponsored –

Elon Musk‘s space exploration & commercial spaceflight company has used optical laser-linking of the satellites for the first time. Musk has confirmed on Twitter that the black pipe-type objects at the end of each Starlink satellite are actually laser links. I have marked these objects in the following photo of the SmallSat satellite stack photo shared by SpaceX before the launch.

SpaceX SmallSat satellite stack with 10 Starlink satellites showing the laser linking.
SpaceX SmallSat satellite stack with 10 Starlink satellites showing the laser linking. Source: SpaceX, illustrated by Iqtidar Ali / TeslaOracle.com.

According to Musk, only the polar Starlink satellites sent to orbit this year will have laser links, all the other Starlink satellites will get laser-linking feature next year. SpaceX has given the current laser-linked satellites a version number of v0.9, Musk explained.

Why Laser Links?

Update: u/snoshy provided much-needed insight on the use of ‘laser links’ on Starlink satellites as the article made it to the HN front page.

These laser links are purely intended for satellite-to-satellite communications for Starlink. They are not (at least at this time, and for the foreseeable future) intended for ground-to-satellite communications.

The value that sat-to-sat laser links provide is that they create a low latency, high bandwidth path that stays within the Starlink satellite network. Before these 10 satellites, each Starlink satellite has only been capable of communicating directly to ground terminals (either consumer, transit or SpaceX control). For traffic that is intended to move large geographic distances (think transcontinental), this can require several hops back and forth between ground and space, or the traffic from the user terminal is exited at a node that is geared for transiting traffic and most of the data transits along with existing ground Internet links.

By performing this type of transit directly in space, and exiting at a transit node nearest the destination for the data, you greatly reduce latency. Bandwidth still might not be great, but what this does is unlocks a very financially lucrative consumer use case: low latency finance traffic and critical communications.

There are many use cases around the world where shaving even 10-20 milliseconds of latency on a data path can unlock finance and emergency capabilities, and this is a long-fought battle throughout the history of these industries. As an example, if you got a piece of news about a company in Australia, and wanted to trade on it as quickly as possible in the USA if you can beat your competitors by 10-20 milliseconds, that can mean a lot of money.

Laser comms for Starlink sats have long been planned, but have historically proven to be quite hard to get working. They also depend on a sufficient critical mass of satellites so that a given satellite actually does have another satellite within the lock to send the traffic towards.

u/snoshy via Hacker News discussion.
SpaceX Falcon 9 firing from the launch pad carrying a record 143 satellites.
SpaceX Falcon 9 firing from the launch pad carrying a record number of 143 satellites. Credits: SpaceX.

Later on, the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket successfully landed on the Of Course I Still Love You drone ship. SpaceX posted the landing video on the company’s official Twitter account — still mesmerizes. Other space flight companies and government bodies have yet to achieve this level of precision in Rocket engineering.

Follow us for more interesting SpaceX stories & news:
Google News | Flipboard | RSS (Feedly) 

Iqtidar Ali
Iqtidar Alihttp://www.teslaoracle.com
Author of more than 1500 articles on Tesla, SpaceX, and EVs. His work has been liked and tweeted by Elon Musk and other prominent influencers. You can reach him on Twitter @IqtidarAlii

Latest News

Tesla (TSLA) regains $1 trillion market cap, Musk to bring Optimus robot dance troupe to the Shareholder Meeting

Tesla (TSLA) has once again topped the $1 trillion market capitalization mark with this week's spur in the company's...

Elon Musk shows Optimus dance moves to President Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince, Tesla (TSLA) releases new videos, more

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk was in Saudi Arabia yesterday. He accompanied President Donald Trump to attend the 2025...

Tesla rolls out FSD v13.2.9 with Spring Update 2025.14.6, fixing the TCU issue

Tesla (TSLA) brings smiles on the faces of its customers waiting for a Full Self-Driving (FSD) software update for...

Elon Musk suggests new names for the Tesla FSD ‘Hurry’ mode

As Elon Musk promised to shift his focus back to his electric vehicle, AI, and robotics company Tesla (TSLA)...
- Advertisement -

Flight 9 Starship is headed for another static fire test, expected launch schedule, more

SpaceX has moved Starship prototype 35 (Ship 35) to the Starbase, Texas launch site in preparation for the upcoming...

SpaceX Starship now has its own city—Starbase, Texas (election results)

Today, it was the election day at Cameron County. Ballots for Starbase incorporation as a Texas city and its...

SpaceX accelerates Starship Gigabay development in Florida, OLM construction makes progress, more

Elon Musk's spaceflight and astronautics company SpaceX is accelerating the Starship program in Florida as well. SpaceX is building...

Tesla Tips & Tricks

Get your Cybertruck tonneau cover fixed by Tesla as a free waterproof upgrade

Tesla (TSLA) is asking owners of the Cybertruck to...

Defrost Mode lets you remotely melt snow from your Tesla in just minutes (videos & how to guide)

Tesla (TSLA) electric cars are unique in many ways...

Here’s how to pair Apple Watch with your Tesla, unlock it and send commands remotely

Tesla (TSLA) released a notable feature with the 2024...

Tesla Quarterly Reports & Eearnings

Tesla (TSLA) surges after Q1 2025 Earnings Call, Musk’s time at DOGE to drop significantly soon

Surprisingly, after reporting negative Q1 2025 automotive and overall...

What to expect from Tesla (TSLA) Q1 2025 Earnings Call with Elon Musk

Today's Tesla (TSLA) Q1 2025 Earnings Call is probably...

Tesla (TSLA) announces time and date of the Q1 2025 Earnings Call

Elon Musk's electric vehicle and energy storage company Tesla...
- Advertisement -

You might also likeRELATED
Recommended for You