Elon Musk has said his Starlink broadband by satellite service will operate its data-transfer of customer’s material at “the speed of light”.
Musk’s comments refer to the use of laser transmitters on board the ‘next generation’ of satellites. Early satellites already in space, about 1,700 of them, will depend on non-laser ground-based gateway links to connect and transfer messages and content with each other, according to GizmoChina.
Musk has applied to the FCC for permission to slightly modify the orbits of around 30,000 planned satellites to boost coverage and operational efficiencies – and to launch them in batches of up to 400 on board his Starship rockets.
Also of note is that Egypt is increasing its investment in space and is already building four buildings out of a planned 23 to be established at its Egyptian satellite city being on an area of 123 acres, located on the Central Ring Road outside Cairo.
Five additional buildings have been started. Engineer Ahmed Youssef, head of the technical group for satellites at the Egyptian Satellite Agency, said the Satellite City will be ready for work in the first quarter of 2022. He added that the purposes of this city includes research, education and photographing the Earth, with different satellites now being worked on. The manufacturing works at the city are carried out in coordination with Egyptian factories.
“We took very important steps in this field, although we started late, but we started conducting space tests, then we collected these systems and succeeded in 2018,” Youssef said, adding, “We launched two satellites designed and manufactured by Egypt; the first was launched with the assistance of the Japanese Space Agency and the other with the assistance of the US space agency.”