Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX. With billionaire and serial entrepreneur Elon Musk at its helm, the venture aims to provide satellite-based internet access to every on Earth, regardless where they are.
The project began in 2019, and as of May 2023, Starlink consists of more than 4,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), working together in a vast network to communicate with their designated ground transceivers.
Once every so often, SpaceX would launch its rockets with Starlink satellites as payloads, to replace those that were destroyed and/or missing, or launch new ones.
And among the new ones also include those with better hardware.
This time, SpaceX indicates that it’s starting to use the second-generation Starlink constellation to beam internet data.
The company has notified the U.S. FCC about the development, saying that:
With four times the communications capacity of early generations of Starlink satellites, what this means, the company that is already making use of its Starlink satelite constellation to beam high-speed broadband to almost any location on the planet, is advancing to a whole different level.
This should be good for business, especially in the U.S., where Starlink has become so popular, that capacity has become stretched, which can result in slower speeds and spotty internet quality for affected users.
Using this second-generation satellite, SpaceX should be able to improve its services.
Besides adding hundreds of generation-one additional satellites into Earth’s orbit, the second generation should work in tandem to provide an improved communication system throughout.
It's worth noting that the FCC granted a license for the second generation back in December, and that the first Gen2 space station was placed in its authorized orbit and "began operating on February 10, 2023."
"To be clear, while SpaceX intends to populate its Gen1 constellation with upgraded satellites, it does not intend to more rapidly de-orbit its existing satellites," SpaceX wrote. "Rather, it seeks only to replace those satellites with upgraded hardware when those satellites reach the end of their planned operational period."
SpaceX launched the first batch of 21 miniaturized versions of its satellites on February 27, and was experiencing some issues, with at least one of the satellites being deorbited around a month after the inaugural launch.
These so-called "V2 Minis" are essentially compact versions of the full-sized Gen2 satellites, which are too big to be carried to orbit on board the company’s Falcon 9 rocket and instead require the payload capacity of the heftier 9-meter-diameter Starship.
Starship first came to light, under another moniker, in a presentation by founder and CEO Elon Musk in 2016, where he laid out the basic idea for this so-called Interplanetary Transport System: a large spacecraft and a huge rocket, both of which would be completely and rapidly reusable.
SpaceX’s Starship rocket had only completed a less-than-perfect test flight in April.
The V2 Minis are meant to fill in the gap until Starship can become fully operational, helping SpaceX meet the growing demand for its broadband internet.
While the V2 Minis are smaller that the full-sized generation two satellites, these satellites are the company's next-generation satellites, meaning that are already equipped with more powerful antennas and high-speed frequencies than the first generation.
It's worth noting though, that even though the V2 Minis are called "minis," they're actually larger than their predecessors when in orbit.
Another improvement SpaceX introduced in these next-generation satellites, is the way they reflect less light.
With thousands of Starlink satellites in orbit, they can reflect sunlight and that they add a lot of noise to images captured by ground-based observatories, making them appear as bright streaks in data gathered by astronomers.
SpaceX has been working with the Federation of Astronomical Societies to dim its satellites in an effort to make them less disruptive for astronomers, agreeing to keep their magnitude at a maximum of seven to alleviate the issue.
A study found that the V2 Minis were at a brightness magnitude of 6.5 after they were raised to their non-geostationary orbit and their solar arrays were directed to reduce brightness, making them difficult to see with the naked eye.
The full-sized second-generation satellites are brighter, but SpaceX is already working on making them less reflective as well.
It's worth noting that the first-generation of Starlink satellites weigh about 260 kilograms, whereas the second-generation satellites weigh in 1,250 kilograms.
At this time, SpaceX has received permission to launch 7,500 second-generation satellites, and has already launched hundreds of second-generation (V1.5) satellites to LEO.