Good news if you use SpaceX’s Starlink home internet. The new and more powerful second gen Starlink satellites are now starting to be launched into space.
Starlink already has permission to launch 7,500 second-gen satellites, and what you see above is just the start of the launches.
Not only is SpaceX planning to launch more second-gen satellites soon but also improving its remaining first-gen satellites. SpaceX is also hoping to use some of this upgraded technology for the remaining first gen-satellites it has yet to launch of the 4408 that the FCC approved.
“To be clear, while SpaceX intends to populate its Gen1 constellation with upgraded satellites, it does not intend to more rapidly de-orbit its existing satellites,” SpaceX wrote. “Rather, it seeks only to replace those satellites with upgraded hardware when those satellites reach the end of their planned operational period.”
Starlink customers won’t see internet speeds improve today, but as more of these satellites go live, you should start seeing speeds and reliability improvements in the months to come.