SpaceX Seeks U.S. Senate Approval To Launch 4,425 Satellites Into Low-Earth Orbit Beginning In 2019

Using the Falcon 9 rocket, Space X plans to launch 4,425 satellites between 2019 and 2024. The satellites would operate at altitudes that wound range between 1,110 and 1,325 kilometers to provide high-speed internet service around the world. Ahead of 2019, Space X would launch a prototype by the end of 2017 and another one in the early part of 2018.

The Senate hearing on Wednesday on U.S. Broadband infrastructure is in response to Space X’s request in November to launch the satellites. Patricia Cooper, the Space X vice president of government affairs, says the proposed service would be better than current service because the deployment of the satellites would be into low-Earth orbit, Engadget reports.

Cooper explains that the entire system targets to provide a high volume of broadband capacity at fiber-like speeds over a wide area. The Space X-designed system is highly adaptable. It would have the ability to move dynamically a big number of beams to focus capacity where it is needed.

Following the company’s November request, Space X filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission an application for satellite space stations authorizations. The private spacecraft company founded by Elon Musk, the owner also of Tesla, has not yet pinpointed when the commercial availability date of the satellite services would be, but it placed the satellite launch date in 2019, Ars Technica reports.

By deploying the satellites at low orbits, Space X would greatly reduce its latency. Its latencies would be between 25 and 35ms similar to the latencies for wired internet services. In contrast, the latencies of current satellite ISPs are 600ms or higher which is the cause of noticeable delays for internet users as data packets travel great distances between the satellites and Earth.

Florida Today adds that when Space X would build the space-based data service, the infrastructure would bypass a lot of issues that companies, consumers, and other internet users complain about. The company would use a vertically integrated approach in which it would design, develop, produce, roll out, and operate the facilities.