Starlink

Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by Starlink Services, LLC, an international telecommunications provider that is a wholly owned subsidiary of American aerospace company SpaceX, providing coverage to around 150 countries and territories. It also aims to provide global mobile broadband. Starlink has been instrumental to SpaceX's growth.

SpaceX began launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of May 2025^[update], the constellation consists of over 7,600 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) that communicate with designated ground transceivers. Starlink comprises 65% of all active satellites. Nearly 12,000 satellites are planned, with a possible later extension to 34,400. SpaceX announced reaching over 1 million subscribers in December 2022 and 4 million subscribers in September 2024.

The SpaceX satellite development facility in Redmond, Washington, houses Starlink research, development, manufacturing, and orbit control facilities. In May 2018, SpaceX estimated the cost of designing, building and deploying the constellation would be at least US$10 billion. Revenues from Starlink in 2022 were reportedly $1.4 billion with a net loss. In May 2024 that year's revenue was expected to reach $6.6 billion but by December the prediction was raised to $7.7 billion. Revenue was then expected to reach $11.8 billion in 2025. Financial statements filed with the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce revealed Starlink 2024 revenue only reached $2.7 billion, about two-thirds short of the latest prediction, for a profit of $72 million.

Starlink has been extensively used in the Russo-Ukrainian War, a role for which it has been contracted by the United States Department of Defense. Starshield, a military version of Starlink, is designed for government use.

Astronomers raised concerns about the effect the constellation would have on ground-based astronomy, and how the satellites contribute to an already congested orbital environment. SpaceX has attempted to mitigate astronometric interference concerns with measures to reduce the satellites' brightness during operation. The satellites are equipped with Hall-effect thrusters allowing them to raise their orbit, station-keep, and de-orbit at the end of their lives. They are also designed to autonomously and smoothly avoid collisions based on uplinked tracking data.

Constellations of low Earth orbit satellites were first conceptualized in the mid-1980s as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, culminating in Brilliant Pebbles, where weapons were to be staged in low orbits to intercept ballistic missiles at short notice. The potential for low-latency communication was also recognized and development offshoots in the 1990s led to numerous commercial megaconstellations using around 100 satellites such as Celestri, Teledesic, Iridium, and Globalstar. However, all entities entered bankruptcy by the dot-com bubble burst, due in part to excessive launch costs at the time.

In 2004, Larry Williams, SpaceX VP of Strategic Relations and former VP of Teledesic's "Internet in the sky" program, opened the SpaceX Washington DC office. That June, SpaceX acquired a stake in Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) as part of a "shared strategic vision". SSTL was at that time working to extend the Internet into space. However, SpaceX's stake was eventually sold back to EADS Astrium in 2008 after the company became more focused on navigation and Earth observation.

In early 2014, Elon Musk and Greg Wyler were working together planning a constellation of around 700 satellites called WorldVu, which would be over 10 times the size of the then largest Iridium satellite constellation. However, these discussions broke down in June 2014, and SpaceX instead filed an International Telecommunications Union (ITU) application via the Norwegian Communications Authority under the name STEAM. SpaceX confirmed the connection in the 2016 application to license Starlink with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). SpaceX trademarked the name Starlink in the United States for their satellite broadband network; the name was inspired by the 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars.