SpaceX adds laser links to Starlink satellites to serve Earth’s polar areas - Ars Technica

SpaceX has begun launching Starlink satellites with laser links that will help provide broadband coverage in polar regions.

As SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter on Sunday, these satellites "have laser links between the satellites, so no ground stations are needed over the poles.".

"All sats launched next year will have laser links," Musk wrote in another tweet yesterday, indicating that the laser systems will become standard on Starlink satellites in 2022.

For now, SpaceX is only including laser links on polar satellites. "Only our polar sats have lasers this year & are v0.9," Musk wrote.

Alaskan residents will benefit from the polar satellites, SpaceX told the FCC in an application to change the orbit of some of its satellites in April 2020.

The plan is to "ensure that all of the satellites in SpaceX's system will provide the same low-latency services to all Americans, including those in places like Alaska that are served by satellites in polar orbits," SpaceX said at the time.

A SpaceNews article today described how the laser links reduce the need for ground stations and provide other benefits:.

In November 2020, SpaceX urged the FCC for an expedited approval "to facilitate deployment of 348 Starlink satellites into Sun-synchronous polar orbits at the lower altitude," the FCC said in its decision to approve 10 satellites.

"We find that partial grant of ten satellites will facilitate continued development and testing of SpaceX's broadband service in high latitude geographic areas in the immediate term pending later action to address arguments in the record as to both grant of the modification as a whole and the full subset of polar orbit satellites," the FCC order said.