How Starlink Got Battle-Tested in Ukraine

Advertisement

"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals are en route. " Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of SpaceX, which debuted the satellite-based internet service in 2020, announced the return of broadband data connectivity to darkened swathes of the struggling country with a single tweet on Feb. 26. Business rarely has such an impact on geopolitics. Starlink has become an information lifeline for war-torn Ukraine, keeping devastated hospitals linked and providing a link to drones targeting Russian artillery assaults. Starlink has been utilised by Ukraine's aerial reconnaissance force to connect directly to drones that have taken down multiple Russian tanks, mobile command centres, and other military vehicles. Schools, fire services, and municipal governments have also received terminals from Kyiv. As of late March, 590 hospitals and clinics had received Starlink terminals to enable them to stay connected amid the war, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.

According to NBC, Ukraine's Digital Transformation Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, stated that more than 10,000 Starlink terminals are now operational in the country. The satellite dishes employed by Ukrainian soldiers for Starlink reception are small (about 23 inches wide) and easily mobile to avoid discovery and retribution, unlike cellphone transmission towers. "Starlink is what changed the conflict in Ukraine's favour," a Ukrainian soldier named Dima—his last name was withheld—told journalist David Patrikarakos. Russia went out of its way to destroy all of our communications systems. They are no longer able to do so. Starlink operates in the face of Katyusha and artillery fire. It's even effective in Mariupol. "

The terminals are also versatile and resilient. Without Starlink, Fedorov tweeted, "it would not have been feasible to repair 10 [kilometres] of cable connection between towns in the Chernigiv region so quickly after major fights." According to Dave Tremper, director of electronic warfare at the Office of the US Secretary of Defense, when Russia used electronic countermeasures, Starlink simply pushed out software updates to prevent them. The quickness with which Starlink countered the strike was described as "eye-watering" by Temper. This type of mission-critical job isn't just done in Ukraine. When a succession of violent tornadoes knocked off internet service in a number of small villages in western Kentucky in December 2021, emergency response operations were hampered. Starlink dispatched technicians and satellite dishes, enabling emergency connectivity within 24 hours.

Advertisement

A Ukrainian soldier speaks on his smartphone outside a building in Kyiv hit by a Russian missile, on Feb. 25. PIERRE CROM/GETTY IMAGES

New low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, such as Starlink, are having a far-reaching impact on providing broadband internet far beyond war zones and natural disasters. In the United States, for example, 19 million people, or 6% of the population, lack broadband connection, with many of them living in sparsely populated rural areas. Despite the fact that 5G wireless cellular networks have the potential to drastically increase data access for millions of people around the world, their range is limited. 5G will leave plenty of black patches outside of densely populated areas. Bringing terrestrial broadband to remote rural areas is expensive without government subsidies. Satellite broadband, on the other hand, isn't free. Starlink is extremely expensive for most Americans living in rural areas, let alone individuals in underdeveloped countries, with a cost of $599 for installation and an additional $110 per month for the basic plan. (Contrary to SpaceX's assertions, the US government is funding a large percentage of the Starlink terminals being transported to Ukraine, while the corporation is giving the rest, in addition to using the service.)

Meanwhile, thanks to greater competition and innovation, the cost of launching a satellite has decreased. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket has reduced space freight prices to $2,600 per kilogramme, a three-quarters reduction from almost $10,000 per kilogramme 20 years ago. (Satellite weights vary, but a typical Starlink microsatellite weighs roughly 227 kilogrammes, or 500 pounds.) This was made possible in part by the company's capacity to reuse the booster stage of the rocket. The Heavy, SpaceX's next generation of rockets, reduces costs even further to $1,500 per kilogramme. Several other businesses, including SpaceX and rival billionaire Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, are developing rocket-launch technologies that are more economical and easier to launch more regularly. This gives them the ability to launch rockets in a continuous stream. Based on this notion, Musk has stated that he plans to launch 42,000 Starlink satellites into orbit.

While Musk is the centre of attention, others are developing satellite-based internet services as well. Amazon said in early April that it has secured freight capacity on as many as 83 rocket launches as part of Project Kuiper, Amazon's own satellite-based global broadband internet programme. It was the world's largest commercial launch service contract. Amazon will face direct competition from Starlink and, to a lesser extent, OneWeb, another satellite operator launching a big fleet into orbit. If these three companies can achieve near-saturation of satellite broadband coverage, high-speed data access will be possible from practically anywhere on Earth at any time. However, it is still unknown whether costs will fall low enough to make satellite broadband affordable to the general public. The good news is that Indian telecoms like Reliance Jio are entering the fray, bringing competition to a global level.

Satellite data transmissions are, of course, nothing new. For secure connectivity in the field, the US government has long contracted with satellite operators such as Viasat. However, the cost of this service has always been high, and bandwidth and capacity have always been limited. For everything save the highest-speed fibre or cable connections, the new generation of satellite broadband providers is expected to deliver substantially faster speeds for the same price or less, and LEO satellites offer low-latency capabilities that rival terrestrial broadband.

However, LEO satellites have a number of drawbacks: Their low angle of orbit may lead customers to lose connection with the service more frequently, causing light pollution that obstructs astronomers' observations. Ground stations and rooftop reception dishes are required for the present generation (though at some point, satellites should be able to beam data directly to and from smartphones, laptops, or other systems). And, as some satellites fail, collide with one another (Starlink alone accounts for the majority of satellite near-misses), or otherwise go out of service—for example, when a new system fails to generate a profit—the tens of thousands of satellites envisioned by multiple operators will generate so-called space junk.

Satellite connections, on the other hand, will continue to function regardless of Earth's conditions. Wildfires in California, for example, have caused multiday power outages, which have resulted in the loss of broadband connections in some locations around San Francisco. The backup generators on cell towers only last a few hours, while cable broadband infrastructure is completely reliant on electricity. When six out of ten U.S. workers have employment that can be done remotely, they continue to work from home all or part of the time. A satellite constellation with thousands of satellites is likewise more durable and difficult to disrupt.

Advertisement