SpaceX is preparing to change satellite Internet by launching its Starlink V3 satellites, which are said to be as big as a Boeing 737 when fully opened. During the “Road to Making Life Multiplanetary” keynote, Elon Musk said that the V3 satellites will start launching in late 2025 or early 2026.
The Starship 3 rocket, which is designed for Mars missions and as big as a Boeing 747, will carry these new satellites into orbit. The bigger launch vehicle means SpaceX can send twice the number of satellites on each mission, even though each V3 satellite weighs almost two tons.
The V3 generation, which will orbit at 350 km instead of 550 km, will provide much better performance. Because the satellites are closer to Earth, latency will be under 20 milliseconds, and Musk hints it could even reach 5 ms, which is perfect for playing Diablo while flying.
Another important advance is how quickly the technology works. The V3 satellites are expected to offer download speeds of up to 1 Tbps, which is more than 10 times faster than what the V2 satellites can do. The speed of uploading data is set to rise by up to 160 Gbps, which is 24 times faster than today’s performance. It is mainly because of advanced laser communication systems that data can be sent 40% faster in space than with fiber optics.
Musk said that SpaceX could launch as many as 5,000 Starlink satellites each year after the Starship 3 system is fully running. It would make the network more capable and dependable. As satellites improve, SpaceX is developing new ground equipment for Starlink, but the initial launch will probably target businesses. SpaceX is set to make ultra-fast, low-latency satellite Internet a reality with Starlink V3, which will change global connectivity by 2026.
