So when SpaceX filed a request with the FCC to send 4,425 satellites into low-Earth orbit (LEO) to provide a global high-speed internet network, the FCC was reasonably concerned. For more than a year, the company
responded to questions from the commission and petitions by competitors to deny the application, including filing an "orbital debris mitigation plan" to allay fears of Kesslerian apocalypse. On March 28, the FCC
granted SpaceX's application.
SpaceX Starlink
On the back of this tech,
11 companies filed applications in the same FCC "processing round" as SpaceX did, each tackling the problem a bit differently.
Elon Musk
announced the SpaceX Starlink program in 2015 and opened a Seattle-based division of the company. He told employees there, "We want to revolutionize the satellite side of things, just as we've done with the rocket side of things."
In 2016, the company filed
the FCC application, which called for 1,600 (later reduced to 800) satellites to go up between now and 2021, followed by the rest before 2024. These will fly between 1,110km and 1,325km above the ground, circling the Earth in 83 distinct orbital planes. The
constellation, as a group of satellites is called, will communicate with one another via onboard optical (laser) interlinks, so that data can be bounced along the sky rather than returning to the ground—tracing a long bridge rather than an upside-down V.
