Starship Against the Laws of Logic: Elon Musk Plans to Fill Orbit with Thousands of Starlink v3

While SpaceX's competitors try to match the launch rate of Falcon 9, Elon Musk is already painting a picture of the future where Starlink satellites spill into orbit like seeds from a packet. The latest statements from the company's head confirm: SpaceX is preparing for a massive leap that will transform satellite internet from a "forest backup option" to a full-fledged competitor to fiber optics in cities.

Space-Scale Logistics

Musk clarified that the key to the new strategy is Starship. According to him, this super-heavy rocket system can launch over 10,000 satellites into orbit each year. For context: there are currently just over 6,000 active company satellites in orbit, collected over several years with hundreds of Falcon 9 launches. Switching to Starship means SpaceX will be able to double its constellation every year without much effort.

Today, the Starlink service serves over 10 million active users in 160 countries. It's an impressive figure, but for global dominance and stable operations in densely populated areas, the current bandwidth is insufficient. That's why the company is rushing to deploy Starlink version 3 (v3), which are physically too large and heavy for the old Falcon 9 rockets.

Gigabit in Every Village

What's so interesting about third-generation machines? The main feature is the transition to gigabit connection. Starlink v3 is expected to increase the network's overall bandwidth by 20 times. This is crucial because the main issue with satellite internet today is speed drops during peak loads when too many people in one region try to watch 4K video simultaneously.

In addition to speed, the new satellites will provide:

• Reduced latency to levels comparable to terrestrial networks.
• Improved direct connection to ordinary smartphones (Direct-to-Cell).
• More stable signal in severe weather conditions.

Musk wouldn't be Musk if he didn't throw out numbers that make astronomers twitch. The plan to bring the constellation to 10,000 units in the near future is just the beginning. SpaceX's ultimate goal is a network of 42,000 satellites. With such an amount of "hardware" overhead, the concept of "no connection" should disappear as a phenomenon, if, of course, Starship flies as often as the billionaire promises.

SpaceX plans not only to dominate low Earth orbit but also to expand further into the Solar System. It was recently revealed that SpaceX is changing course by prioritizing Moon missions before Mars colonization.