The Federal Communications Commission announced on Friday that it had granted SpaceX its petition to launch an additional 7,500 second-generation Starlink satellites in an effort to enhance internet connectivity across the globe.
The FCC reported that SpaceX, by Elon Musk, can now operate 7,500 more satellites of the Gen2 Starlink satellites, which has an overall of 15,000 satellites in the world.
FCC is also permitting SpaceX to update the satellites and work on five frequencies, and is overlooking the past provisions that did not permit the overlapping coverage and the higher capacity.
The agency indicated that the extra satellites will offer direct-to-cell communications beyond the United States and supplemental U.S. coverage that will support next-generation mobile services and up to 1 gigabit per second internet speeds.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr said, “This FCC authorization is a game-changer for enabling next-generation services. By authorizing 15,000 new and advanced satellites, the FCC has given SpaceX the green light to deliver unprecedented satellite broadband capabilities, strengthen competition, and help ensure that no community is left behind.”
Meanwhile, SpaceX had requested permission to launch approximately 30,000 satellites, but the FCC responded that it was only authorizing 15,000 at present.
The FCC stated, “We find that authorization for additional satellites is in the public interest, even as the Gen2 Starlink Upgrade satellites remain untested on orbit. We defer authorization of the remaining 14,988 proposed Gen2 Starlink satellites, including satellites proposed for operations above 600 km.”
The FCC reported that SpaceX has to launch 50 percent of the total number of authorized Gen2 satellites, put them in their allotted orbits, and operate by December 1, 2028, and the remaining SpaceX satellites to be launched by December 2031. Therefore, it should have deployed the 7,500 first-generation satellites by the end of November 2027.
Starlink stated last week that it will start reconfiguring its satellite constellation, reducing all the satellites in orbit at approximately 550 km (342 miles) to 480 km throughout 2026, an action that would enhance space safety.
Starlink indicated in December that one of its satellites had had an anomaly in space, releasing a small amount of debris and breaking the communication with the spacecraft at an altitude of 418 km, a kinetic accident in orbit for the satellite internet giant.
SpaceX has transformed into the largest satellite operator in the world with its Starlink network of approximately 9,400 satellites transmitting broadband internet to consumers, governments, and enterprise clients.
The predecessor of FCC chief Carr, Jessica Rosenworcel, encouraged greater competition with SpaceX’s internet satellite constellation Starlink, stating that Starlink at that point controlled nearly two-thirds of all active satellites.
