It only took around 2 days for Elon Musk and his space exploration company SpaceX to deliver a batch of Starlink terminals to Ukraine after Musk promised the terminals are en route.
The Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov directly tagged Elon Musk on Twitter and asked for his help to provide Starlink internet service to his country. “Elon Musk, while you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations and to address sane Russians to stand,” Mykhailo wrote on Twitter.
“Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route,” Musk replied to the Ukrainian Vice Premiere and also Minister of Digital Transformation of the country.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 22 Feb 2022, people in major cities have also been deprived of internet services among other essentials of life. The lack of internet is creating trouble for innocent people in communicating with their loved ones. This interruption is also making it for the people of Ukraine to inform the rest of the world about the real-time situation of the war going on in their country.
Upon receiving the shipment of Starlink dish receiver terminals, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister personally wrote a thank you note to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, “Starlink — here. Thanks, Elon Musk,” he wrote. “You are most welcome,” Musk replied.
SpaceX wants to build a huge constellation of around 42,000 Starlink satellites in the low Earth orbit (LEO) at 550 km altitude from the surface of the Earth. The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has already approved 12,000 satellites to be sent to LEO by 2027. To date, SpaceX has already sent 2,187 satellites to space of which 1,849 units are currently functional.
With the Starlink constellation, SpaceX aims to provide high-speed low-latency internet services to remote areas where ground-based broadband is not available. This service also becomes useful in situations like the one currently happening in Ukraine.
Now it is up to the Ukrainian government to utilize these Starlink terminals intelligently in the best interest of the citizens and residents of the country. There have been thousands of foreign students studying in Ukraine. More than 18,000 Indian students were studying in Ukraine in the year 2020.
Access to the internet will also be a relief for the families of foreign students studying in Ukraine as they will be able to get the latest information from the country and get in touch with their loved ones.
SpaceX has accelerated the Starlink satellite launch missions this year. The last and this year’s 8th launch of Starlink satellites aboard a Falcon 9 rocket was carried performed on 25th Feb 2022 (full coverage video below). The next Starlink launch is planned for 3rd Mar 2022.
Related: Starlink dish terminal unboxing and setting (video review)
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