Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has assured Ukraine that his company SpaceX will provide its Starlink satellite broadband service in the face of a Russian invasion that has disrupted the internet in the country
File photo of Elon Musk. AP
Billionaire businessman Elon Musk has assured Ukraine that his company SpaceX will provide its Starlink satellite broadband service in the face of a Russian invasion that has disrupted the internet in the country.
Ukrainian minister of digital transformation Mykhailo Fedorov urged Musk through a tweet to provide Starlink services to Ukraine.
“While you try to colonize Mars — Russia try to occupy Ukraine! While your rockets successfully land from space — Russian rockets attack Ukrainian civil people! We ask you to provide Ukraine with Starlink stations,” Fedorov tweeted at Musk.
Some 10 hours later, Musk responded, “Starlink service is now active in Ukraine,” adding “more terminals en route.”
What is SpaceX’s Starlink broadband service and how is it helping Ukraine in its conflict with Russia:
What is the Starlink service and how it can help war-torn Ukraine
Even though it’s a rather new technology, Starlink is one of the many similar companies that have launched small satellites in the earth’s low orbit.
These satellites provide broadband internet services in remote areas that are not feasible or easy to be reached with terrestrial networks like fiber optic cables.
It enables the satellites to operate without sending data back to a ground station.
While most satellite internet services today come from single geostationary satellites that orbit the planet at about 35,000 km, Starlink is a constellation of multiple satellites that orbit the planet much closer to Earth, at about 550 km, and cover the entire globe.
Since Starlink satellites are in a low orbit, the round-trip data time between the user and the satellite – also known as latency – is much lower than with satellites in geostationary orbit.
It can also be seen as a groundbreaking technology in emergency scenarios such as the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Without the need of traditional ground infrastructure, Starlink can be deployed within minutes to support emergency responders in disaster scenarios.
The technology can also be a critical backstop when hurricanes or other natural disasters disrupt communication.
According to Al Jazeera, due to the Russian invasion, internet connectivity has been severely hit in Ukraine, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the country.
Internet monitor NetBlocks said Ukraine has seen a “series of significant disruptions to internet service” since Thursday, when Russia launched military operations in the country.
Since SpaceX’s Starlink service does not require a ground station to be able to transmit data with its users, it is at an advantage in the current scenario to operate at locations that are seeing heavy fighting.
Starlink operates a constellation of more than 2,000 satellites that aim to provide internet access across the planet.
The company on Friday launched a further 50 Starlink satellites and many more are slated to be put into Earth’s orbit.
With inputs from agencies
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