Lifeboat Foundation

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch 22 Starlink internet satellites to orbit this evening (Oct. 17), if all goes according to plan.

The Falcon 9 is scheduled to lift off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station today at 5:20 p.m. EDT (2120 GMT). If SpaceX doesn’t hit that target, there are five backup opportunities available between 6:11 p.m. EDT and 8:48 p.m. EDT (2211 to 48 GMT), company representatives wrote in a mission description.

Starlink’s website update is revealing a bit more about its plans for a satellite-delivered cell phone service. The new page for “Starlink Direct to Cell” promises “ubiquitous coverage” from “cellphone towers in space” that will work over bog-standard LTE. The current timeline claims there will be text service starting in 2024, voice and data in 2025, and “IoT” service in 2025.

Today satellite phone connectivity still requires giant, purpose-built hardware, like the old-school Iridium network phones. If you’re only looking for emergency texting, you can also make do with Apple’s introduction of the barely there connectivity paradigm, requiring being inside a connectivity window, holding up a phone, and following a signal-targeting app. Starlink wants to bring full-blown space connectivity to normal smartphone hardware.

Starlink satellites will soon be offering Direct to Cell capabilities to enable texting, calling, and browsing everywhere on Earth. SpaceX will start satellite-based text messaging in 2024 and expand to voice and text support in 2025. They will offer cellular connectivity to IoT devices in 2025. The service will work with existing LTE phones without the need for any hardware, firmware changes, or special apps.

Direct to Cell will also connect IoT devices with common LTE standards. SpaceX plans to equip its future Starlink satellites with an advanced eNodeB modem. This innovation will essentially transform a Starlink satellite into a cellphone tower in space.

This will be enabled by tens of thousands of satellites and eventually millions of satellites will replace most of the 5 million cell towers on Earth. It will means everyone and everything can be connected. All people, robots, and self driving vehicles will be connected.

Chinese scientists claim they’ve had unexpected success in developing a high-powered microwave (HPM) weapon, according to The Diplomat. The magazine notes that in January, Huang Wenhua, deputy director of China’s Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, was awarded for his research on directed energy, which HPM weapons use.

HPM systems are able to destroy electronic equipment, and in an age when most combat systems—from tanks to planes, radios to satellites—rely on electronics, the weapons could change the way wars are fought. Warships will be fitted with HPM weapons to intercept incoming missiles.

The HPM project, alongside other projects involving lasers and electromagnetic pulses, is part of the Chinese regime’s “Assassin’s Mace” (or “Trump Card”) program designed to defeat a technologically superior opponent by disabling or destroying the technology that makes the opponent superior.

The service was supposed to be launched in beta this year but has been pushed back after Starship has failed to reach orbit.

SpaceX’s satellite-powered mobile telephony service could be available in 2024, according to recent changes in the service provider’s webpage. Direct to Cell will allow text, voice, and data services from Starlink’s V2 satellites.

Launched more than 30 years ago, satellite-based telephone services are still as challenging to use as they were back then. With the advent of satellite-based internet services, thanks to Starlink, interest in telephony has increased again. Apple introduced it in their latest iPhone but limited it to emergency purposes and nothing beyond basic texts.

The ocean has always been a force to be reckoned with when it comes to understanding and traversing its seemingly limitless blue waters. Past innovations such as deep-sea submersibles and ocean-observing satellites have helped illuminate some wonders of the ocean though many questions still remain.

These questions are closer to being answered thanks to the development of the Intelligent Swift Ocean Observing System (ISOOS). Using this system, targeted regions of the ocean can be mapped in a three-dimensional method allowing for more data to be gathered in a safer, quicker and more efficient method than existing technologies can achieve.

Researchers published their results in Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research.

SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has landed a new client in Maersk, as the two companies came to terms on a deal that would provide the company’s Ocean fleet with internet access.

Maersk announced this morning that more than 330 own-operated container vessels will now have Starlink installed, enabling the fleet to access high-speed internet with speeds at over 200 Mbps.

The logistics company said the deal with SpaceX’s Starlink service “is a leap forward in terms of internet speed and latency, which will bring significant benefits in terms of both crew welfare and business impact.”

SpaceX’s Starlink will be available on most aircraft soon, said Elon Musk. The technology will be available for use by any operator if it is ordered.

Some operators provide an internet connection during airplane flights. However, if you try to use it, you will most likely encounter a problem. The problem with most in-flight internet offerings is speed and connectivity. Airplanes connected to the antenna receive signals from communications towers on the ground as they fly overhead. This limits the availability of internet: it becomes unstable, difficult to connect to, and the actual speed reaches no more than about 10 Mbps. That is why satellite internet can offer a number of benefits, and SpaceX’s Starlink will soon do just that.

Currently, Starlink has a constellation of about 5,000 satellites in low Earth orbit and plans to increase this to 42,000 in the future. This is significantly more than all other companies combined. For example, Viasat, which provides in-flight internet service to JetBlue, United Airlines, and American Airlines, operates a fleet of four satellites, according to The Street.

SpaceX is set to launch 22 more of its Starlink internet satellites from Florida on Monday night (Oct. 9).

The Starlink spacecraft are scheduled to lift off atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Monday at 8:42 p.m. EDT (0042 GMT on Oct. 10). Four backup opportunities are available as well, from 9:32 p.m. EDT until 12:10 a.m. EDT (0132 to 410 GMT on Oct. 10).