SpaceX is working to test Starlink, the company’s satellite internet system, in space during an orbital flight on the Starship rocket.
On Monday, SpaceX filed an application with the FCC to operate Starlink on an upcoming Starship launch in Texas, which intends to send the craft 250 kilometers (155 miles) above the planet’s surface.
The proposed experiment may seem odd since Starlink has been chiefly designed to supply high-speed internet to Earthbound consumers stuck with poor broadband. However, SpaceX envisions another potential use for the satellite internet network.
“Starlink can provide unprecedented volumes of telemetry and enable communications during atmospheric reentry when ionized plasma around the spacecraft inhibits conventional telemetry frequencies,” the company wrote in the application. “These tests will demonstrate Starlink’s ability to Improve the efficiency and safety of future orbital spaceflight missions.”
The experiment will involve mounting several Starlink dishes on the Super Heavy Booster rocket and on the Starship craft itself. The dishes will then be able to receive and beam internet data to the Starlink satellite constellation already in orbit.
The plan is to test Starlink “during launch, during booster recovery, in flight, and during reentry,” the application says. “The orbital Starship spacecraft will continue flying just south of Florida. It will achieve orbit at a maximum altitude of approximately 250km before performing a powered, targeted soft landing approximately 100km off the northwest coast of Kauai (located in Hawaii).”
The application is still waiting for approval. In April, the FCC granted SpaceX a separate experimental application to test a single Starlink dish on a Starship rocket, but at an altitude not to exceed 12.5km, or 41,000 feet.
