Category Archives: Spacex

SpaceX recently announced that it would continue beta testing its Starlink broadband Internet service into 2021. The announcement highlights a delay as the service was previously planned to roll out in 2020. Its unclear exactly when, in 2021, the service will exit beta. As close as we have to a date at this point comes from a SpaceX engineer named Kate Tice, who said that the company plans to expand its beta testing early next year.

According to Tice, the company will expand in a notable way in early 2021, specifying a timeframe of late January into early February. Its unclear how long after that expanded beta test it might take before the service is ready for everyone. Space X has been pushing hard to get more Starlink satellites into orbit.

On November 24, SpaceX put 60 new satellites into orbit aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. That mission was also notable because it marked the seventh launch for the Falcon 9 first stage used. There are plenty of videos online that show early beta testers installing the hardware and testing speeds offered in some parts of the US by the Starlink service.

Those beta testers have paid $499 for the Starlink hardware and $99 a month. Users have reported speeds as high as 100 Mbps and upload speeds and ping times plenty fast enough for video streaming and online gaming. Eventually, Starlink will offer broadband service globally. The last time we heard from SpaceX, it intended to launch the service in India by the middle of 2021.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees the broadband Internet service as a way to fund other SpaceX missions in space. The service also aims to connect parts of the world that are underserved or unserved by broadband Internet access.

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SpaceX Starlink beta test will continue into next year - SlashGear

Regina Jorgenson

WednesdayNov25,2020at10:20AM

(Nov. 25, 2020) Last week the NASA SpaceX Crew-1 mission successfully launched and took four astronauts to the International Space Station, also known as the ISS.

A few minutes after launch, a Baby Yoda doll floated free in the cabin, indicating that zero-gravity had been achieved. A short 27 hours later, the craft docked with the ISS.

While a rotating crew of astronauts has been on the ISS continuously for the past two decades, this mission is remarkable for several reasons.

First, it marks the first in a series of regularly-crewed SpaceX missions to the ISS. Until this year, the United States has relied upon the Russian Soyuz spacecrafts to carry astronauts to and from the ISS, since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011.

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SpaceX mission reaches International Space Station - Nantucket Island Inquirer

When Shafqat Zaman takes photos of the International Space Station (ISS) from Calgary, it may help that hes about one kilometre closer than photographers shooting from sea level.

However, the ISS is still about 399 kilometres away and moving at a speed of about 7.66 kilometres per second relative to the ground. No matter how you measure it, snapping a shot of the orbiting laboratory is an incredible feat.

Zaman captured an amazing shot Wednesday evening. It features a clear view of the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which lifted off Nov. 15 and docked with the station about 27 hours later. Its the white cone-shaped object on the left side, near the middle.

This wasnt his first snapshot of the most expensive object ever constructed. Zaman captured several images of the ISS, showing different angles as it passed overhead in late September.

He also captured this stunning transit of the ISS in front of the sun.

Zaman said he uses an eight-inch Meade SCT telescope with a Canon M5 camera.

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Calgary man captures photo of SpaceX Dragon docked at the International Space Station - Calgary Herald

Other experts have questioned the concept altogether, noting that point-to-point space launches will usher in a new host of issues that must be addressed before this concept gets off the ground. Victoria Samson at the Secure World Foundation told Breaking Defense's Theresa Hitchens that TRANSCOM's plans open up a regulatory can of worms:

It seems like it would provide a host of traffic management questions, as well as spaceport issues. Where would these craft be taking off/landing? Will we have spaceport bases in allied territory, and if not, how does this benefit our troops overseas if we still have to move them through ground transportation systems?

It isn't exactly clear what kind of scenarios would require this type of high-cost rapid transport, either. One could imagine using the system for moving very time-sensitive equipment and supplies to forward operating locations, but even if the cost is far less than an actual SpaceX orbital launch, it would still likely be a huge investment every time it is used. The exact infrastructure requirements are also unknown as is just how such heavy loads will be delivered safely. Suborbital flights would drastically increase the available payload of a system like Falcon 9, as opposed to its orbital insertion mission, but safely landing tens of tons of cargo in some sort of a cost-effective manner remains a question mark, albeit one that will be really interesting to see solved.

This certainly isn't the first time the U.S. military has fancied the ability to move things around the globe, including people, far faster than existing airlift concepts can provide. In 2018, now-retired Air Force General Carlton Everhart, then-head of that service's Air Mobility Command (AMC), which is part of TRANSCOM, made similar comments about space-based logistics after having sat down with SpaceX, as well as Virgin Orbit.

Think about this. Thirty minutes, 150 metric tons, [and] less than the cost of a C-5 [cargo plane], Everhart said. I said, I need to get me some of that. How do I do that?

Those remarks prompted many of the same questions that still exist now. Those same issues have dogged similar efforts that have come and gone since the 1960s, including the abortive Small Unit Space Transport and Insertion (SUSTAIN) effort, which received support from the Pentagon's National Security Space Office and U.S. Marine Corps in the 2000s and was said to be "doable" by the end of the 2010s. You can read more about that project and other efforts in the context of Everhart's 2018 comments in this past War Zone piece.

Still, SpaceX is no stranger to giving the DoD what it wants. It has previously teamed up with the U.S. Air Force to offer datalink services through their Starlink satellite constellations for the USAFs burgeoning Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). ABMS is designed to link U.S. forces and allies across all domains, enabling real-time data fusion and sharing on an unprecedented level. Dr. Will Roper, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, has previously stated that data is now an essential warfighting resource as valuable as jet fuel, and is the key to next-gen warfare. SpaceX was recently awarded around 40% of the U.S. Space Forces launch service contracts through 2024 and another $149 million to develop early warning satellites for the Space Development Agency (SDA).

While Lyonss comments about the potential for planet-wide deliveries in one hour may sound like an exaggeration, it does follows along with other recent comments made by other military brass. Just last year, retired Air Force Lieutenant General Steven Kwast claimed that existing cutting-edge technology makes it possible to deliver any human being from any place on planet Earth to any other place in less than an hour."

While TRANSCOM hasn't mentioned delivering personnel using rockets, SpaceX founder Elon Musk has stated that the company's Starship rocket will soon enable point-to-point travel - for those willing to withstand the Gs such a trip would exert on the body. Kwast's comments remain peculiar, but using rockets for rapid transport across the globe could point in the direction of his claims. Still, we are not talking about a man rating for the system at this time, at least according to TRANSCOM.

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The Military's Puzzling Plan To Have SpaceX Deliver A C-17's Worth Of Cargo Anywhere In An Hour (Updated) - The Drive

WASHINGTON SpaceX, Hughes Network Systems and Viasat are eligible to compete for a share of the $20.4 billion in broadband subsidies the FCC plans to dole out under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) starting later this month.

The Federal Communications Commission on Oct. 13 released a list of qualified bidders for the RDOF funds, which will be awarded via reverse auction to telecom providers bidding to bring subsidized voice and broadband internet services to rural communities and other underserved parts of the United States.

FCCs list of qualified bidders includes 386 telecom providers, including SpaceX, Hughes and Viasat.

Inclusion on the list makes them eligible to participate in an RDOF reverse auction set to begin Oct. 29. Thats when the FCC will begin accepting bids from telecom providers for delivering services to some six million homes and businesses in census blocks entirely unserved by voice and broadband with download speeds of at least 25 megabits per second. A second round of awards, the dates for which havent been set, will expand the program to cover partially served locations as well as locations passed over during the first round.

Viasat is proud to be included on the FCCs list of Qualified Bidders for the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction, John Janka, Viasat chief officer for global government affairs and regulatory, told SpaceNews by email. We believe we are well qualified to offer broadband connectivity under the FCCs performance metrics for RDOF, but are unable to comment further given the FCC rules governing the auction process.

While there was little doubt that Hughes and ViaSat would make the list of qualified bidders, SpaceXs inclusion wasnt a given because the Starlink constellation does not yet offer commercial service.

In the lead up to the competition, satellite operators complained that the RDOF rules put too much emphasis on low signal latency, which they say will make it too tough to win a share of the funds.

Hughes and Viasat have long provided consumer internet services via geostationary satellites, building and launching new satellites providing fast enough downloads to meet the FCCs definition of broadband. However, geostationary satellites because they orbit some 36,000 kilometers above the equator suffer a roughly 1/2-second signal lag that disqualifies them from competing as low-latency services, defined by the FCC as 100 milliseconds or less lag.

To achieve lower latency and qualify for additional FCC broadband subsidies, Viasat CEO Mark Dankberg has discussed the idea of launching a constellation of 288 satellites in low Earth orbit. Pradman Kaul, Hughes Network Systems president, said the firms $50 million investment in OneWeb means the company could offer LEO broadband in the FCC reverse auction.

SpaceX is going for faster speeds and lower latency than GEO broadband by deploying thousands of broadband satellites into low Earth orbit, boosting network capacity and reducing signal travel times. The company has launched more than 700 Starlink satellites since 2018 but has yet to introduce commercial service. While SpaceX has told the FCC that the low orbits chosen for Starlink ensure it can outperform the 100-millisecond performance standard, the FCC said this summerit remained unconvinced.

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SpaceX, Hughes and Viasat qualify to bid for $20.4 billion in FCC rural broadband subsidies - SpaceNews

SpaceX is preparing to launch four NASA astronauts on its Crew Dragon spaceship this Halloween the first of six regular crewed missions the space agency has contracted from the rocket company founded by Elon Musk. (The one that concluded in August was considered a demonstration.)

That's on top of the cargo resupply missions that SpaceX will regularly launch to the International Space Station for NASA. The company has been sending a spaceship designed to carry supplies, called Cargo Dragon, to the orbiting laboratory since 2012. That vehicle has made more than 20 trips to the station and back.

Combined, the two types of Dragon spacecraft are scheduled to launch into space seven times over the next 14 months, leading to an unprecedented situation for SpaceX.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship launches from NASA's Kennedy Space Center with a "Starman" dummy aboard on March 2, 2019. NASA TV

"Every time there's a Dragon launch, there'll be two Dragons in space," Benji Reed, director of crew mission management at SpaceX, said at a press conference earlier this month.

That's because each of the crewed SpaceX missions should overlap for a little while. The company's next astronaut mission, called Crew 1, launches at the end of the month, then the next one, Crew-2, is scheduled to launch in late March 2021. But the Crew-1 astronauts don't plan to leave the space station until April. The same thing should happen with the following mission, Crew-3: It's expected to launch in September 2021, so should tag up with Crew-2 in orbit.

The Crew-1 crew includes NASA astronauts Shannon Walker, Mike Hopkins, and Victor Glover, as well as Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi. Hopkins is to be the mission commander, Glover the pilot, and Walker and Noguchi mission specialists.

NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts participate in equipment testing in Hawthorne, California, on September 24, 2020. SpaceX

Before SpaceX launched NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the space station in May on its Crew Dragon, NASA hadn't been able to fly its own astronauts to space since 2011, when it ended its space-shuttle program.

The partnership with SpaceX was the product of the space agency's Commercial Crew Program, which put private firms in competition for billions of dollars' worth of government contracts. SpaceX and Boeing came out on top. Once the program is complete, NASA will have doled out more than $8 billion in awards and contracts over about a decade.

Boeing is expected to launch its first crewed CST-100 Starliner spaceship in December 2021. The Starliner-1 crew consists of commander Sunita Williams, mission specialist Jeanette Epps, and pilot Josh A. Cassada all NASA astronauts. The fourth member has not yet been announced.

But before Boeing launches humans into space, it has to retry an uncrewed demonstration mission on Starliner, because the attempt in December failed: Starliner entered orbit successfully, but failed to rendezvous with the space station due to potentially "catastrophic" software errors that NASA then investigated. The vehicle also saw problems on its way back to Earth.

Until Starliner is ready for spaceflight, Crew Dragon remains the only ship the US has to carry people to and from the space station hence the crew changeovers will, for the foreseeable future, all be on SpaceX missions.

SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship "Endeavour" just before docking to the International Space Station on May 31, 2020. SpaceX/NASA via YouTube

NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine has said he envisions "the next era in human spaceflight" to be one in which NASA can be one of many customers in a "robust commercial marketplace."

In addition to Commercial Crew, NASA is forming other partnerships with private industry to bring in revenue.In September, the agency announced a $128,000 deal with Este Lauder to carry 10 bottles of the cosmetics company's Advanced Night Repair serum to the space station, where crew members will shoot videos and images.

Tom Cruise. Featureflash / Shutterstock.com

In October 2021, Tom Cruise and "Mission Impossible: Edge of Tomorrow" director Doug Liman are slated to travel to the ISS on a SpaceX tourist mission, where they'll shoot the first major blockbuster in space. NASA is also in talks with US production company Space Hero, Inc. to produce the first reality TV series filmed in space.

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SpaceX may have Dragon spaceships in orbit without a break for a year - Business Insider - Business Insider

Elon Musk's SpaceX and the US military plan to build a rocket capable of delivering 80 metric tons of cargo anywhere in the world in 60 minutes.

Under a newly agreed contract, SpaceX will assess the costs and technical challenges of the project, while initial tests are expected in 2021, Gen. Stephen Lyons, the head of US Transportation Command, said Wednesday at a virtual conference.

A 7,652-mile journey from Florida to Afghanistan could be completed within about an hour with such a high-speed rocket, which could travel at 7,500 mph, per The Times.

In comparison, a US C-17 Globemaster, a military transport aircraft costing $218 million with a maximum speed of 590 mph, would complete this journey in about 15 hours.

"Think about moving the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour," Lyons said.

"I can tell you SpaceX is moving very, very rapidly in this area. I'm really excited about the team that's working with SpaceX."

Another aerospace company, Exploration Architecture Corporation, will also be part of the research program.

SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002, has already developed the Falcon 9, a reusable rocket designed to carry 22 metric tons of cargo and land vertically in a controlled descent.

The plan comes days after SpaceX landed a $149 million contract to build missile-tracking satellites for the Pentagon, indicating that the aerospace firm is ramping up its military contracts.

As part of the deal, SpaceX will build four satellites fitted with wide-angle infrared missile-tracking sensors in its assembly plant in Washington, where the firm builds satellites for its Starlink internet project.

In August, SpaceX won 40% of a billion-dollar agreement with the Department of Defense to launch new rockets for the Space Force. The remaining 60% went to United Launch Alliance.

Read the original here:

Musk's SpaceX partners with US military to deliver weapons by rockets - Business Insider - Business Insider

After two weeks of delays, SpaceX delivered its 13th batch of controversial Starlink satellites to low-Earth orbit this week (October 6, 2020).There are now 775 Starlink satellites in orbit. The 60 satellites launched this week are equipped with a sunshade called VisorSat in an effort to reduce their brightness. They were carried to orbit by a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket, which blasted off from Pad 39A at NASAs Kennedy Space Center at 7:29 a.m. Eastern Time (11:29 UTC) on October 6. The Falcon 9 boosters first stage came back to Earth, landing on one of SpaceXs drone ships in the Atlantic Ocean, nine minutes after launch.

Poor weather conditions at Falcon 9s ocean recovery site had initially forced SpaceX to stand down from its first attempt to launch this particular Starlink mission one of multiple missions designed to provide satellite Internet access on September 17, 2020. Weather concerns also thwarted launch attempts on September 28 and October 5, while ground systems issues prevented the rocket from flying on October 1. However, the fifth time was the charm, and weather conditions finally cooperated for a smooth launch on October 6. Onlookers cheered as the Falcon 9 rocket leapt off the pad, signaling an end to the series of launch aborts and weather scrubs that have recently plagued the Space Coast.

The booster powering the October 6 launch is a previously flown Falcon 9 first stage that the company has identified as B1058.3. This booster, now with three flights under its belt, previously carried two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on May 30 as part of SpaceXs historic first crewed mission. The rocket then lofted a communications satellite for South Koreas military in July. Emblazoned with NASAs iconic worm logo, still visible underneath the boosters scorched appearance from its two trips to space and back, B1058 made its landing on the deck of the SpaceX drone ship Of Course I Still Love You, which was waiting out in the Atlantic Ocean.

The successful launch and landing marks SpaceXs Falcon 9s 94th flight to date and 61st recovery of a Falcon first stage booster since SpaceX recovered their first one in 2015.The launch also came amid World Space Week 2020, which is celebrating the impact satellites have on everyday life.

SpaceXs Starlink megaconstellation is designed to provide global broadband coverage for high-speed internet access, particularly for people across the world in rural and remote areas. Its download speeds are currently going through a private beta-testing phase, but are now able to be extended to the public with broader participation. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted

Once these satellites reach their target position, we will be able to roll out a fairly wide public beta in northern U.S. and hopefully southern Canada.

Other countries to follow as soon as we receive regulatory approval.

Starlink controversy within the astronomy community. Despite the promise of high-speed broadband internet, SpaceX has taken criticism within the astronomical community for its Starlink satellites, due to their brightness and potential to disrupt observations of the night sky. The National Science Foundation and the American Astronomical Society released a report on the situation in August 2020. Discussions among more than 250 experts at the virtual Satellite Constellations 1 (SATCON1) workshop expressed concern that the bright train of satellites marching across the sky will hinder their observations.

In response, this is the third batch of Starlink satellites now that are outfitted with a blackened sunshade called VisorSat that the company hopes will reduce the satellites apparent brightness by reducing the amount of sunlight thats reflected. This is just one of the six suggestions proposed by the SATCON1 team. Initial efforts at mitigating the spacecrafts impact involved launching a prototype Starlink satellite later dubbed DarkSat earlier this year, which features a black antireflective coating. Recent ground-based observations of DarkSat in orbit found it half as bright as a standard Starlink satellite, which is a good improvement, according to experts, but still far from what astronomers say is needed. Jeremy Tregloan-Reed, a University of Antofagasta astronomer on the observational team that assessed the prototype, commented:

I would not consider DarkSat as a victory but instead a good step in the right direction.

The team compared DarkSat with a typical Starlink sibling using a 0.6-meter telescope at the Ckoirama Observatory in Chile and found that although DarkSats antireflective coating rendered it invisible to the naked eye, it remains far too bright to avoid interfering with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory now under construction in Chile and other major telescopes. Additionally, DarkSats darker color retains too much heat, so the company is sticking with the visor alternative instead.

Astronomers are hoping to observe VisorSat and compare it with DarkSat once observatories reopen following the Covid-19 shutdown. The Federal Communications Commission has currently granted SpaceX permission to launch as many as 12,000 of the flat-panel broadband satellites, but have indicated goals to send up to 30,000. With those plans as well as Amazons Project Kuiper aiming for 3,236 satellites and OneWeb, a now-bankrupt company recently acquired by the United Kingdom government, perhaps striving for 2,000 the scale of astronomys satellite-constellation problem will only increase.

A time-lapse image shows the passage of a Starlink satellite cluster, creating bright streaks through a telescopes field of view at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory of Chile in November 2019. Image via CTIO/ NOIRLab/ NSF/ AURA and DECam DELVE Survey.

Bottom line: After 2 weeks of delays, SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket blasted off October 6, 2020, hauling a full stack of 60 Starlink VisorSat satellites. The rocket successfully landed at sea aboard a drone ship, just minutes later.

Read more:Astronomers Issue Report on the Effect of Satellite Constellations on Astronomy

Read more: SpaceX launches 60 starlink satellites and lands rocket at sea

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SpaceX launched 60 more Starlink satellites this week - EarthSky

A San Antonio company is partnering with the military and SpaceX to move cargo anywhere in the world in an hour using commercial spacecraft including vertical-landing rockets built in Texas.

U.S. Transportation Command, which is responsible for moving military personnel and equipment around the world, said its working with Exploration Architecture, or XArc, and Elon Musks SpaceX to develop rapid transportation through space capabilities.

XArc, with six employees, is responsible for determining whats needed on the ground to launch and land commercial spacecraft around the world.

The collaboration is the latest development in Texas still-expanding role in space travel and could help the U.S. military more quickly respond to threats and humanitarian crises around the world.

The aim is to use commercial space vehicles, including SpaceXs Starship, to deliver payloads anywhere in the world. Starship can carry loads of 220,000 pounds.

Our role is to understand the ground support infrastructure required to make it happen, XArc CEO Sam Ximenes said. What are the ground facilities and cargo standardizations so that it is seamlessly integrated into the (militarys) current logistics system.

His company is teaming with Houston engineering firm KBR to evaluate three types of rocket landing areas: rugged sites with no infrastructure, remote sites with limited support and mature sites that have established capabilities.

Related: NASA contractors stake out San Antonio's place in space

The nine-person team is considering the logistics, including fuel and cargo requirements, needed to support spacecraft around the world, Ximenes said.

Think about moving the equivalent of a C-17 payload (170,900 pounds) anywhere on the globe in less than an hour, Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, said in a statement. Think about that speed associated with the movement of transportation of cargo and people.

The companies could begin testing ground-support concepts as early as 2021.

In addition to SpaceXs Starship, XArcs study is looking at commercial space vehicles under development, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos Blue Horizon and Virgin Galactics Stratolaunch.

Founded in 2007, XArc specializes in space architecture and engineering, and it consults on designs for spaceports, space stations, planetary surface systems and terrestrial space-related facilities, the company website states.

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For the past 75 years or so, we have been constrained to around 40,000 feet altitude and 600 miles per hour in our very fastest method of logistics delivery airlift, said Navy Vice Adm. Dee Mewbourne, deputy commander of U.S. Transportation Command.

Rockets traveling through space could speed cargo delivery by 10 times.

Its time to learn how our current strategies to project and sustain forces can evolve with a new mode of transportation, he said.

In addition to speed, commercial space lift eliminates en-route stops or air refueling, officials said in a statement. This capability has the potential to be one of the greatest revolutions in transportation since the airplane.

The no-cost agreement allows U.S. Transportation Command and the companies to exchange research and technology as they study the use of commercial space launches to move cargo around the globe. What the contractors glean from the project could help them secure future space-cargo contracts.

SpaceX currently is building and testing its Starship, which is 400 feet tall and 30 feet wide, in Boca Chica, near Port Isabel and South Padre Island.

SpaceX has launched Starship from Boca Chica on short hops to 500 feet. Its expected to launch to 60,000 feet in the next few weeks. However, SpaceX has not announced the date.

I had no sense for how fast SpaceX was moving, but I've received their update, and I can tell you they are moving very rapidly in this area, Lyons said.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.

Brandon Lingle writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. brandon.lingle@express- news.net

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San Antonio company working with military, SpaceX to move cargo anywhere in world in an hour or less - San Antonio Express-News

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Only several hundred satellites into its planned mega-constellation of thousands, SpaceX's Starlink network appears to already be paying dividends for the company that wants to use it for funding eventual trips to the moon and Mars.

In batches of about 60 at a time, SpaceX has launched 13 successful Starlink missions from a mix of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, boosting the internet-beaming network'ssize to 718 currently in orbit. That cadencemade the California-based company the world's largest satellite operator by volume last November.

Emergency personnel battling wildfires, a Native American tribe, and even the Department of Defense have all stepped up to express their interest in the broadband constellation designed tobypass complicated ground infrastructure.

The company's private beta testing program is moving ahead, too, with public access expected to open sometime late this year or early next year. The northern U.S. and southern Canada will be the first regions targeted for public testing.

A rendering of a SpaceX Starlink satellite in low-Earth orbit.(Photo: SpaceX)

CEO Elon Musk hasmade it clear that Starlink wasn't necessarily designed to compete with ground-based options already entrenchedin cities and suburbs. He sees potential in rural, on-the-go, and underserved customers.

In late September, for example, Washington state's Emergency Management Division took to social media to announce it had partneredwith SpaceX to provideinternet to emergency responders and residents in Malden, a town that lost 80% of its buildings towildfires, according to CNN.

"Happy to have the support of SpaceX s Starlink internet as emergency responders look to help residents rebuild the town of Malden," the division said on Twitter, noting the internet infrastructure had been destroyedas well. "Maldenis an area where fiber and most of the town burned down."

The division later confirmed that SpaceX provided the equipment primarily pizza box-sized ground terminals that look like mini satellite dishes free of charge.

About 350 mileswest of Malden, meanwhile, the Native American Hoh tribe also took to social mediato announce it too had entered into a Starlink partnership.

"What a difference high-speed internet can make," the Hoh tribe said on Twitter Wednesday."Our children can participate in remote learning, residents can access healthcare."

Before Starlink, the tribe said, it was only gettingspeeds of less than 1 Mbps. The low-Earth-orbit constellation, meanwhile, can deliverbeyond 100 Mbps if conditions are ideal.

"We felt like we'd been paddling up-river with a spoon on this," the tribe said. "SpaceX Starlink made it happen overnight."

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sits on pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center with 60 Starlink internet satellites on Wednesday, March 18, 2020.(Photo: Craig Bailey / FLORIDA TODAY)

The military has taken notice of SpaceX's new satellite experience, too.

The Air Force, for example, has already awarded the company at least $28 million for testing internet connectivity while aircraft are in the skies. Then on Monday,Starlink scored a coup in the lucrative world of defense satellites when theSpace Development Agency chose SpaceX to develop and build four brand new spacecraft.

The company was awarded nearly $150 million for the "Tracking Layer Tranche 0Wide Field of View" program, part of theNational Defense Space Architecture. The satellites, launched sometime in or after 2022,will help detect and track ballistic missiles.

It marks the first military production order for SpaceX and, if all goes well, likely won't be the last the Tracking Layer is slated to grow much larger in the coming years. The company is expected to use its Seattle assembly line.

SpaceX was just one of two companies selected to build the missile-detecting satellites for the SDA. The other, also tasked with building four similar satellites for $193 million, will sound familiar to Space Coast residents:L3Harris.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @EmreKelly. Support space journalism by subscribing atfloridatoday.com/specialoffer/.

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SpaceX's effort to build the Starlink constellation is already paying dividends - Florida Today