SpaceX's Starlink is a satellite internet service that provides broadband internet by connecting users to satellites in low Earth orbit, which then communicate with ground stations connected to the internet.

SpaceX has launched thousands of its Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit

Every launched batch of satellites contains roughly 60 of the desk-sized gadgets. The batch is released at random into an initial orbit, and it takes time for them to naturally spread out enough before operators begin unfolding their antennae.

By 2028, a space trash-avoiding maneuver is expected to occur every 18 seconds

As the number of active Starlink satellites increases, greater efforts will be required to keep low Earth orbit free of debris, sparking a new technological space race. NASA has found that using lasers to manage small and medium debris could save up to $9B over 30 years.

Starbase is SpaceX's testing ground for their most powerful rocket, Starship

Located near the southernmost part of Texas, the complex includes rocket bays, test pads, the "Rocket Garden" where flown, cancelled, or retired spacecraft are kept. The outdoor seating area of the site's private restaurant is covered in Mk1 Starship prototype flaps.

View the docket of future SpaceX launches

SpaceX has established an efficient schedule for launches of ISS crew shuttles and Starlink satellites, with blastoffs occurring just under once every four days in 2023—a pace that has since accelerated as the company has won more contracts.

Two main types of inflight WiFi connections are air-to-ground and satellite-based

ATG systems rely on aircraft antennae to catch signals from cellphone towers, while the latter uses a network of satellites transmitting data from space. As of 2022, airlines like Delta and United hosted over 1.5 million monthly WiFi sessions.

Visualize the impact of approximately 9,000 metric tons of satellites and space debris orbiting Earth—70% of which, including the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope, do so in low Earth orbit.

A quick guide to everything SpaceX

SpaceX has single-handedly reignited commercial space exploration, with its reusable rockets, broadband satellite constellation, and plans to populate Mars. The company has gone from a mere idea in 2002 to the world's most well-known private space company. Learn the basics about this pivotal company with this quick guide from CNET.

Space probes propelled by lasers may one day visit distant planetary systems

Launched in 2016, Breakthrough Starshot is a project to send gram-sized spacecraft to the nearest stars and their planets at 10% to 20% the speed of light after being accelerated by ground-based laser systems. The project requires orders of magnitude advancements to current technology.

Explore a virtual tour of the Starlab Space Station

Hilton plans to design much of the interior of the free-flying commercial facility to provide comfort and hospitality during astronauts' in-space living. Starlab will include crew communal areas, wellness spaces, and advanced sleeping quarters.

The Deep Space Network is an array of giant radio antennas at three locations on Earth to keep NASA in constant communication with spacecraft billions of miles away.

Starship is the space travel ship that rides atop the world's largest rocket

SpaceX hopes to use the vehicle for both interplanetary travel and shorter flights around Earth. At 30 feet wide, it allows for more storage and headspace for inhabitants than previous NASA spacecraft.

SpaceX was built to achieve Elon Musk's vision of making humans an interplanetary species.

Explore the night's sky from anywhere

Stellarium Web is a planetarium running in your web browser. It shows a realistic star map, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. Using its interface, you can click on object's visible at your location on the Earth...

As of 2022, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX are the primary space tourism companies

Blue Origin offers 11-minute suborbital flights for $28M, while Virgin Galactic provides a 90-minute suborbital flight for $450,000. SpaceX offers orbital flights for $55M, including trips to the International Space Station, and plans to offer civilians trips to the moon by 2030.

How SpaceX Made Space Affordable

SpaceX has cut launch costs by over 95%—from $54,000 per kilogram to around $2,000—reshaping how we access space.

Deep Space Network sites enable nonstop communication with distant spacecraft

Each DSN complex has multiple large, sensitive antennas that can receive weak radio signals from far-off spacecraft and send commands back to them. Their amplifiers are cooled to just above absolute zero to reduce electronic noise.

Testing the internet speed of the US's wireless providers

The US ranked 26th in the world for mobile speeds and eigth for fixed broadband speeds during April 2022. See this ranking of mobile and fixed broadband speeds from around the world on a monthly basis.

Watch a livestream of Earth from the International Space Station

The feed is made possible by the SpaceTV-1 camera system, which is live over 20 hours a day. Video replays are shown during routine loss of signal communications with the inter-satellite link relaying the video data.

Which countries have the fastest internet speeds?

Ever wonder about how fast internet speeds are around the world? Take a look at this graphic which lists out the countries with the highest mobile internet speeds in 2023. Countries in the Middle East and East Asia dominate the list while America lags behind in eighteenth place. Learn more about why a high-income country like the US fall behind in speed, and why other countries are internet powerhouses.

The Grace Hopper subsea cable transmits internet traffic across the Atlantic

Running between the US, UK, and Spain, the cable is part of an extensive underwater network of fiber optic connections that transmit data across the world at light speed. Equipped with 16 fiber pairs, the private cable was Google's first-ever subsea connection to Spain.

Rising satellite numbers pose increased risks of planes being hit by falling debris

Projections of more than 100,000 satellites in space by the 2030s—eight times the number in 2025—highlight a growing threat to aviation. Experts suggest the odds could reach seven in 10,000 annually by 2035, alongside higher risks to people on the ground.

Billionaires are racing to space to control future markets

Although different companies have described focuses ranging from luxury tourism to Martian space colonies, all are building infrastructure to capitalize on the shift away from government-only control and betting big on reusability and scale. By securing public contracts and subsidies, they aim to develop strategic partnerships toward dominance in low Earth orbit.

Elon Musk founded SpaceX after being unable to purchase affordable rockets abroad

Space-based solar power systems may beam energy to Earth

Researchers have successfully collected power from solar panels on a plane and transmitted it to a receiver on Earth's surface, achieving a milestone for space-based energy. The proof of concept is a precursor for a satellite-based solar farm that would transmit energy 24 hours a day.

A primer on SpaceX's primary rockets and spacecraft

SpaceX has developed several lines of rockets, from its workhorse Falcon 9 to the visionary Super Heavy rocket of the company's Starship designed for massive payloads. Each iteration costs millions of dollars and came with scientific and economic challenges and several are no longer in development. Learn more about the company's roster of rockets and craft here.

Tech giants like SpaceX and Meta are increasingly behaving like sovereign powers

Companies now make unilateral decisions once reserved for nation-states, such as controlling satellite internet access in active war zones and influencing global information flows. Lawmakers and the international order are struggling to keep up with technological developments, let alone regulate them.

A list of technologies that run on Linux, including those on the International Space Station

Besides the Astrobee robots and computer systems on the ISS, the security and reliability of Linux distros have led to their use by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Pentagon, the Library of Congress, and the New York Stock Exchange. Many of the operating systems found in smart devices, autonomous vehicles, and wearables also run atop the Linux kernel.

See how SpaceX has impacted costs throughout spaceflight history.

Visualize network coverage for mobile carriers worldwide with maps of crowdsourced latency and download and upload speeds.

A lunar 'satellite catapult' revives a 50-year-old idea for launching rockets

Elon Musk has proposed building a mass driver on the moon to fling satellites into space, exploiting low gravity to cut fuel and costs. The concept dates to 1970s space-settlement studies, highlighting how older industry ideas are resurfacing amid today's AI and space-infrastructure race.

Falcon 9's first stage is able to land within a 30-foot diameter target consistently

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket releases its reusable first stage hundreds of miles above the Earth's surface as it travels thousands of mile per hour. The stage often then lands on an autonomous ocean drone in the middle of the sea.

Explore a series of NASA visualizations tracking satellites and space debris

The series illustrates the population of objects orbiting Earth as of February 2024, using data from US Space Command. These include active satellites, defunct spacecraft, rocket bodies and debris fragments larger than roughly 10 centimeters in low Earth orbit.

Explore a searchable map of underwater cables carrying internet traffic worldwide

The Submarine Cable Map provides users with data from TeleGeography's Transport Networks Research Service on individual submarine cables, including cable owners, suppliers, URLs, landing points, lengths, and notes of interest.

In 2018, SpaceX launched a Tesla Roadster into heliocentric orbit for publicity

As of February 2023, the vehicle and its mannequin driver—dubbed "Starman"—have completed three and a quarter revolutions around the sun. One paper estimated that the car has a 22% chance of crashing into Earth within the next 15 million years.

Watch a supercut of the various iterations of SpaceX's Starship rocket

The first version, called Starhopper, was named with the vision of developing rocket stages that could safely land after use, enabling reusability to cut costs. The endeavor was an enormous engineering challenge that required years of testing.

Stars appear to twinkle because turbulence in the motion of molecules in Earth's atmosphere causes light to bend and wiggle rapidly on its way to the surface—a phenomenon called scintillation.

Millions of Americans will be invested in SpaceX because of the fast-tracked process to list SpaceX on the Nasdaq 100, and, subsequently, the index funds that track it.

By measuring radio signals transmitted to and received from distant spacecraft, NASA's Deep Space Network can determine a spacecraft's position and speed and send commands to alter its trajectory.

Stream live radio from anywhere on Earth

Spin a 3D globe and tune into thousands of live radio stations by clicking any dot on the map. The project is seamless and acts as a reminder that somewhere, right now, someone is broadcasting music, news, or a call-in show in a language you've never heard.

NASA plans to build a lunar-orbiting space station to support future missions to Mars

Planned for a 2027 launch, NASA Gateway is a lunar-orbiting space station meant to support Artemis lunar missions and future Mars travel. This resource includes an interactive 3D model of the proposed station's modules and layout.

Mapping the world's cell towers

Millions of cell towers around the world help connect the world's 8 billion people via cell phones and the Internet. But access to such coverage, while still expanding, is not equal. This data visualization depicts the world's many cell connections across a global map, revealing cell use hot spots and the world's many gaps in coverage.

Learn about the construction of the undersea fiber optic cables carrying internet data

Over 750,000 miles of fiber-optic cables run along the seafloor, serving as a freeway for the Internet's data. Despite subsea cable projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the length of the cable, it remains the fastest and most cost-effective way to send information.

Overcoming industry skeptics, SpaceX provides low-cost, high-publicity spaceflights

From recovering and reusing rocket components to launching a mannequin and Tesla into orbit to the tune of David Bowie's "Starman," Elon Musk drove public interest and government contracts to his company as he transformed space launches into spectacles.

In 1962, the US detonated a nuclear weapon in space, which produced an electromagnetic pulse that disabled three low Earth orbit satellites and damaged electrical equipment in Hawaii.

Listen to a podcast that explains why Elon Musk is creating a company town called 'Snailbrook' for SpaceX and some of his other companies in Bastrop, Texas, a small community roughly 45 minutes outside of Austin.

NASA has partnered with several private companies to promote commercial space stations

The retirement of the International Space Station in 2030 has led NASA to refocus its efforts on continuing microgravity research through private partnerships, including the support of multiple commercial space stations' design and development.

Around 380 underwater cables power the Internet across the world.

On July 29, 1858, two steam-powered battleships met in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they connected two ends of a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) long, 1.5 centimeter (0.6 inch) wide cable, linking for the first time the European and North American continents by telegraph.

Scientists have proposed using lasers to push space trash into Earth's atmosphere

Such projects would allow most debris to burn up and no longer pose a risk to active satellites, telescopes, and astronauts on space stations. Enacting these plans would require substantial investments from private and governmental space agencies and overcoming international laws that prevent the removal of another country's space equipment.

The space race of the 21st century is focused on a permanent lunar outpost

After decades of dormancy, NASA and SpaceX hope the Artemis program will provide opportunities for lunar resource extraction. Countries like India, China, and the UAE have also shown interest in developing future lunar economies.

Space telescope development was driven by a desire to bypass Earth's atmosphere

The most important figure in the effort to create what would become the Hubble Space Telescope was Lyman Spitzer, who first proposed a telescope in orbit in 1946. The nearly 50-year endeavor led to space-based observatories, which are not limited by Earth's atmosphere absorbing or distorting most wavelengths of light.