All Starlink satellite Internet system spacecraft launched since September of this year will be equipped with laser terminals, [...] SpaceNews reports a statement by SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell.
According to her, the presence of laser communication between spacecraft will reduce the system's dependence on ground stations and reduce the signal delay time (ping).
The launch of the first batch of updated Starlink spacecraft equipped with laser terminals on a Falcon 9 heavy rocket is scheduled for mid-September of this year. The first ten experimental satellites of the system that received lasers were launched into polar orbit in January.
In September last year, the publication ArsTechnica reported that SpaceX began testing an inter-satellite connection between Starlink spacecraft, as a result of which about 100 gigabytes of data were transmitted between a pair of satellites using laser communication.
In November 2019, the Breaking Defense publication reported that in December 2018, the Pentagon, as part of the Defense Experiment Using the Commercial Space Internet program, conducted several experiments with the Starlink near-Earth satellite system of the American company SpaceX.
Ivan Potapov
