Stalink 2.0
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has unveiled details on the next generation Starlink satellite in an interview with Youtuber Tim Dodd (The Everyday Astronaut).
The new Starlink satellites are optimised for Starship’s carrying capacity and dispensing capabilities, and it shows.
Starlink V2 will be 1.25 tonnes each, and measure about 23ft long. This makes them over 4x heavier than Starlink V1.5, and clearly demonstrates why the new constellation can only be carried into orbit by Starship.
And they’re not just bigger, they’re stronger too. Musk was a little tight-lipped about the specific capabilities - aside from saying they’re “almost and order of magnitude more capable than Starlink 1.” - but it’s believed the new satellites will have a bandwidth of about 140-160 gigabits per second each; a significant improvement over the V1’s 18 Gbps.
The plan is - if the FCC approves the design - to launch a new constellation of 30,000 Starlink V2 satellites. Starship can reportedly launch an entire orbital plane of them in one launch - that’s 100-120 satellites evenly spaced in orbit - and would have to launch half of the 30,000 satellite network inside 6 years.
For those keeping track, that’s around 125-130 launches or 22 launches per year. That’s quite the milestone to hit for a ship that hasn’t even had an orbital test flight yet.
But with all the numbers involved, we can make some conservative estimates. Every Falcon 9 launch of Starlink V1 added about 1080 Gbps of bandwidth to the constellation. If Musk’s numbers are correct, one Starship launch of Starlink V2s could add around 19,000 Gbps - or 19 terabits per second, considering we’ll be using numbers large enough to go up a magnitude.
Obviously those are estimations, and as with any estimations of an orbital network it’s important to note that a ground-bound network with infrastructure support will always perform better. Even with a full constellation, a Starlink network will always be bottlenecked at the point of how many satellites are in range at any given moment.
But for those folks who don’t live in cities, or areas with strong network infrastructure; Starlink 2.0’s constellation will continue to improve their connection to the world. Let’s hope SpaceX can deliver.