Author Topic: SpaceX prepares for Air Force test connecting an aircraft to its Starlink satellite internet  (Read 311 times)

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Offline Elderberry

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CNBC by Michael Sheetz 3/12/2021

SpaceX prepares for Air Force test connecting an aircraft to its Starlink satellite internet

Key Points

•   SpaceX is preparing to further test its Starlink satellite internet in a demonstration for the U.S. Air Force, the company revealed in a request to the Federal Communications Commission.

•   The company disclosed it is working with Ball Aerospace for this test, with the contractor providing antennas necessary to connect to “tactical aircraft.”

•   The Starlink test is under the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet (DEUCSI) program, for which Ball was awarded a contract in August.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is preparing to further test its Starlink satellite internet in a demonstration for the U.S. Air Force, the company revealed in a recent request to the Federal Communications Commission.

“SpaceX seeks to make minor modifications to its experimental authorization for additional test activities undertaken with the federal government,” the company wrote to the FCC in a filing on Thursday.

“The tests are designed to demonstrate the ability to transmit to and receive information from (1) two stationary ground sites and (2) one airborne aircraft at one location, and would add to these (3) limited testing from a moving vehicle on the ground,” SpaceX said.

“The Commission previously granted SpaceX an experimental authorization for activities undertaken with the federal government to demonstrate the ability of SpaceX’s [non-geostationary orbit] system to transmit and receive information between both fixed sites on the ground and airborne earth stations aboard moving aircraft,” the company said in its filing with the FCC.

More: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/12/spacex-prepares-for-air-force-test-of-starlink-satellite-internet.html