SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth • Hacker News Board

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#21

Post by ck2 » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:15 PM UTC

usui wrote: post #4

ck2 wrote: post #3

no, just no make them pre-pay a multi-trillion cleanup and cancer fund for all the toxic waste, not just the launches but pollution burning up in the atmosphere * https://satellitemap.space/ * https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-space-orbit-satellit... * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48787042

You want them to pay a multi-trillion dollar clean-up and cancer fund for car-sized multi-year-service-life satellites burning up in the atmosphere? How much do you want incumbent multi-decade culprits to pay? EDT: I should have clarified I'm not only talking about incumbent satellite companies because people are replying about the launch volume. Think about pollution from oil companies and coal plants and consider h…

we cannot have private trillionaires milking "privatize the profits and social the costs"

no more, it has to end immediately

they aren't just silo-ing their wealth, they are leveraging against societies, funding far-right violent politics against society

even the evil Koch-brothers have cancer wings in hospitals around the country, Musk doesn't give a dime to charity, just his own foundation which he controls to only do what he wants to manipulate

pre-pay costs to society before damaging society

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#22

Post by wmf » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #13

formvoltron wrote: post #2

soooo good that they'll burn up one day and this nonsense can finally end. investors provide infinite capital to nonsense projects so that the showman can create an endless show that will attract new nonsense capital. sorry but already in rural morocco they have 200 mbit internet for 20 bucks a month. Yes there are some 6 wheeled vehicles roaming the planet that might really benefit from these 100k satellites. but fo…

Starlink was funded internally by SpaceX. What investors are you talking about?

SpaceX's money came from outside investors.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#23

Post by CrankyBear » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

There are many places, even in the US, where your only alternative is--believe it or not--dial-up modems. Others had painfully slow--1 Mbps up, 5 Mbps down--Internet.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#24

Post by consumer451 » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:16 PM UTC

usui wrote: post #16

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

Recently I flew on a long-distance (so at least a dozen hours of flight time) low-budget airline that had 60 Mbps download/12 Mbps upload and it specifically called out SpaceX Starlink for being able to provide this for free. A video call went smoothly. There was connectivity from takeoff to landing with no interruption in between. This was the best airline experience I've had yet.

OK, so for this, Starlink is AMAZING! In-flight Starlink is undeniable.

The first time I experienced it, I could not believe what was happening. I messaged my nerd friends with screenshots of https://speed.cloudflare.com/

Also, their required zero-friction UX is the shiznit.

Then, I fell asleep as I finally had theoretical time off.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#25

Post by prescriptivist » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

I spent last weekend under some of the darkest sky you'll find in the eastern US. Miles from cell service. I had a starlink portable with me and it was nice to get some service and stay in touch, but to watch the sky is to see satellites everywhere.

I've spent a dozen or so weeklong stretches in the last few years completely off grid, only connection being bringing up the inReach once a day. At this point I actually get anxiety at the end of such a trip, knowing that I'm going to be wading through a morass of notifications and slack/email/texts. Doing a once or twice a day sync via starlink didn't really bother me so much when I'm out in the backcountry this last trip.

I'd love to be rid of all of it, but that's not how the world works today.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#26

Post by therobots927 » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

24/7 high fidelity radar of the entire earth’s surface. Probably used by NRO’s sentient system and similar classified skynet projects

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#27

Post by basisword » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:17 PM UTC

usui wrote: post #16

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

Recently I flew on a long-distance (so at least a dozen hours of flight time) low-budget airline that had 60 Mbps download/12 Mbps upload and it specifically called out SpaceX Starlink for being able to provide this for free. A video call went smoothly. There was connectivity from takeoff to landing with no interruption in between. This was the best airline experience I've had yet.

And this is exactly why we don't need internet on planes.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#28

Post by ceejayoz » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

ls612 wrote: post #15

ck2 wrote: post #3

no, just no make them pre-pay a multi-trillion cleanup and cancer fund for all the toxic waste, not just the launches but pollution burning up in the atmosphere * https://satellitemap.space/ * https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-space-orbit-satellit... * https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48787042

The amount of matter which enters Earth's atmosphere from non-manmade sources is far higher than any conceivable amount of space junk today.

But a significantly different makeup than plain old rock dust.

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#29

Post by rzerowan » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:18 PM UTC

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

Eeh even ther its a stretch , when people talk about Africa - they should really specify where exactly. PLaces like SouthAfrica [1] already have a robust Fiber network with accelerated buildout of FTTH. Ditto for most of Eastern Africa countries which have FTTH to most of the major cities and subururbs with accelerated buildouts ongoing. Unless its a conflict area most regions are getting wired up pretty fast to enhancce business connectivity - the speeds and bandwith for starlink make noe economic sense once a developing pop are factored in.The only major push for many countries approvals is basically strong armed and shaken down by the US admin on behalf of Musk[2].

[1]https://ctcommunications.co.za/blog/south-africa-fiber-rollo...

[2]https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/us-pushes-nations-fa...

Re: SpaceX wants to launch 100k more Starlink satellites for 100x the bandwidth

#30

Post by adventured » Fri, Jul 10, 2026, 6:19 PM UTC

ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #8

consumer451 wrote: post #5

When Starlink first became available here in poor-ish Central-EU, I was excited. Then, only months later, but after years of planning: EU funding brought fiber to my farm area, at ~$25/900mbps 10ms. While my story is just n=1, I don't understand the huge upside for Starlink outside of Africa or India, where they have However, I am dumb, and very open to be convinced.

People in rural parts of America where ISPs don't want to expand into.

They seem to be expanding even across rural America. These days it's fairly common for small and medium size towns to have access to 500mbps-1gbps for $50-$90 per month, and essentially all small cities and above.

Reddit is overflowing with threads where people are getting AT&T to give them 1gbps for $30-$35 per month. Comcast has repeatedly offered me 1gbps for ~$50/m for five years locked-in. I have no practical use for it.

The US has more broadband than it knows what to do with at this point. Somebody needs to figure out a mass public use for home 1gbps+.