The last time in Italy there was so much talk about it online was April 2020: we were in the midst of the first wave of coronavirus and it was also the night of Friday 17, and there was no lack of the most absurd hypotheses about what had happened. Today as then, however, nothing strange: those lights seen in the sky the other night along the Po Valley were only the wake of some satellites of the Starlink network that went into orbit.
Unlike what happened a couple of years ago, those who noticed them were not in Liguria but between Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto and Friulifrom where the flight of the satellites was particularly visible: as confirmed on Twitter by SpaceX, the company of Elon Musk which has to do with space activities, there were 53 and they went to enrich the Internet connection network provided by the company.
After the launch, happened from the base of Cape Canaveral, Floridathe rocket that brought them into orbit returned to Earth and landed on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.
twitter: the announcement of the new launch of Starlink satellites
The curiosity
Starlink and the problem of kittens: the antennae heat up and they use them as a kennel
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What is the Starlink network and how it works
The green light for the positioning of Starlink satellites arrived in 2018: currently in Space there are just under 2 thousand, Musk had asked for permission to install nearly 4,500, then the request rose to around 30,000. Which are more than all the satellites currently orbiting the Earth combined.
The aim of the project is to speed up the Internet connection and also take it to areas of the world where there is not and will hardly be: a person send a data packet (a message, an email, a video, a group of photos) to one of the satellites of the Starlink network via radio waves, then the signal passes from one satellite to another until you reach the one closest to the person to whom it is to be delivered, who can download it. As announced, the connection speed should be between 100 and 200 MB/swith latency as low as 20 MS in most locations.
google trends: searches for “satellite starlinks” in the last week
How much does it cost to use Starlink (also in Italy)
Come on Italian Tech we explained last May, the service is already accessible also in our country. It is not very cheap, however: they have to be taken into account 644 euros for the starter kit (with the antennas so loved by kittens), to which to add 75 euros for packaging and shipping; then you pay 99 euros per month for the subscription.
For those who have the possibility to connect using other operators, it does not make much sense to choose Starlink. Otherwise, for those who live in areas with little or no coverageElon Musk’s company remains among the few solutions available to connect to the Net in a stable and fast way.
Space
Ready to take off Vega C, the new ESA rocket born in Italy
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How to see satellites fly into orbit
In the coming months, Starlink launches will continue, and there are sites that allow you to follow them practically live: for example, on findstarlink.com you can enter your position in the world and to know when those strange lights will be visible again and also to consult a map to see how the satellites that are already in orbit are moving.