Author: V. Iyengar, Megaphone Editor-in-chief

In January 2015, SpaceX announced its plans for Starlink for the first time to the public. Since then, it has launched 6912 satellites into orbit as of January 2025, 6874 of which are working, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer who tracks the Starlink constellation on his website. 

How does it work

Starlink is a satellite internet service that provides high-speed broadband internet. Satellite internet works by sending data signals from your device to a satellite orbiting Earth, which then relays that data to a ground station connected to the internet. The ground station retrieves the requested information and sends it back to your satellite dish. Prior to Starlink, the most notable satellite internet service providers, Viasat and Hughesnet, used a few large geostationary satellites to provide internet, stationed in high earth orbit, typically 22,000+ miles above Earth. Starlink is different from these, as it instead uses several low-earth-orbiting (LEO) satellites to provide internet, with their satellites typically orbiting at around 300 miles above earth. This ends up reducing latency (lag time) and increasing availability of Starlink compared to the services provided by other satellite providers. Additionally, aside from electricity to keep the dish powered and a clear line of sight from the dish to the sky, you do not need much else, like cellphone towers, fiber lines, etc for satellite internet to work, making it an incredibly versatile option. 

Who Starlink it meant for

Compared to the most common internet service types in the United States, like cable and fiber optic, Starlink is not a competitive option, as it offers slower speeds that only get slower as more people use its service, making it not an ideal option for most people around the world who live in urban and suburban settings who are already served by high-speed broadband services. However, Starlink likely isn’t meant for the average internet user. The main benefit when it comes to using Starlink is its versatility and range. Starlink is able to provide fast internet to even the most remote of areas, which other, more traditional types of internet service providers cannot. There are many businesses, like farms, etc that operate in rural, remote locations where other infrastructure necessary for providing that region with high-speed internet does not exist. Satellite internet is the most widely available type of internet because it doesn’t rely on infrastructure like cables, cellular towers, etc.

Additionally, while Starlink is not necessarily quite as fast as 5G wireless, fixed wireless, cable and fiber, it is a much better option than DSL (digital subscriber line), which is popular in areas without access to cable or fiber internet. DSL speeds tend to be much lower than other options, ranging from 5-120Mbps, whereas the majority of Starlink users experience speeds of over 100Mbps. In the past, satellite internet has been considered a “last resort” option as an internet service provider, as other satellite internet service providers have provided much slower service with higher latency. Due to the shorter distances the signal needs to travel with Starlink, latency is reduced significantly. For example, Viasat satellite internet has an average latency of around 550 milliseconds, whereas Starlink latency is typically between 25 and 60 milliseconds, which is much more comparable to latency in fiber optic cable (5 microseconds) and cable internet latency (13-27 milliseconds). Additionally, you’d have to pay almost double for a plan that produces the same speed when using Viasat compared to Starlink.

One major downside to Starlink, aside from its slower speeds compared to more traditional types of internet, is its cost, which does get in the way of its message of “equitable” internet access. For example, CenturyLink, one of the most popular DSL internet service providers in the United States, has a starting price of $55/month, whereas a standard Starlink internet plan costs around $120 per month along with a one-time initial hardware fee of $599. Starlink is also meant for sparsely populated regions, as because it operates with a finite bandwidth, the internet speed goes down significantly as more people use the internet it provides at once. So, while the costs of Starlink is simply too high for most people living in poorer places who currently do not have internet access or are served by a slower type of internet service, Starlink is ideal for customers like the US military, which currently relies of geostationary satellites for internet, which, as mentioned before are plagues by high latency and congested service, and businesses which operate in rural areas. Airlines are also looking into using Starlink to provide passengers with faster and more stable in-flight Wi-Fi. 

Astronomers’ Concerns About Starlink

As mentioned before, currently Starlink has almost 7,000 satellites in orbit, with hopes to have 42k satellites in its mega constellation. For reference, as of Nov. 7, 2022, only 14,450 satellites have been launched in all of history with 6,800 currently active according to the European Space Agency. The sheer scale and size of this project concerns astronomers, who fear that Starlink’s satellites, which tend to be bright, will interfere with their ability to observe the universe. This fear increased when images were released of trails left by Starlink being seen on a telescope at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. Some also fear that because there are so many of them orbiting at Low Earth Orbit, the satellites may become a great collision hazard in Earth’s orbit for spaceflights.