Comment by Polizeiposaune
5 days ago
Most of the satellites now have three 200GBps inter-satellite links. The starlink V3 that will be launched on the big rocket reportedly have six ISLs.
5 days ago
Most of the satellites now have three 200GBps inter-satellite links. The starlink V3 that will be launched on the big rocket reportedly have six ISLs.
Yes, it turns out I'm wrong about them not doing inter-satellite links.
Yes, they had these plans from the get-go so launching the necessary hardware is not surprising. The question was whether anything like that went live
Once it does go live, anyone could see the lower ping between two users of this network. If they say it got enabled, that wouldn't be hard to independently verify
What demonstrates ISL use is service availability in the middle of oceans, far from any ground station.
https://www.starlinkflights.com/how-to-check-starlink-flight:
"Unlike older geostationary satellite systems that had coverage gaps and high latency over remote oceans, Starlink's low-earth orbit constellation covers the entire globe. Qatar Airways, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and airBaltic all offer uninterrupted Starlink on long-haul international routes."
Its already live, Starlink works in the Arctic far outside the line of sight of any base station.
Do you have a source for this claim?
SpaceX form S-1 filed on 5/20/2026:
"... as of March 31, 2026, our constellation already incorporated over 23,000 inter-satellite lasers that create a dynamic mesh network in space, enabling traffic to route through orbit rather than relying solely on terrestrial backhaul infrastructure."
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000162828026...
Since when? Last I heard this was just vaporware.
Since 2021 when they started deploying the v1.5 satellites.
The only source I have ever seen is the US SDA confirming they have seen a demonstration of Starlink’s ISL, in 2024.
Do you have any more detailed or up to date information? I’m not doubting that they built ISL capabilities, since ISL is often used for collision avoidance and small scale satcom - I’m doubting that it is being actively used to route internet traffic.
3 replies →