During our in-depth segment on the eruption of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, we mentioned that Starlink is harming the night sky for research astronomy, but it may be worth it if it’s usable in an emergency such as the Tonga eruption. That now seems to have happened. 

In an article Fiji Broadcasting Corporation News posted last week, SpaceX engineers are in the country, setting up a ground station for Starlink, according to the minister of communications for Tonga. The ground station will be set up for six months until the current undersea cable is repaired.

This is a nice gesture, but with only one ground station, the total bandwidth available is limited. Still, as the Starlink constellation is currently set up, the satellites can only send signals when both the customer and a ground station are both in sight, so it’s better than nothing. The inter-satellite links are not operational, and even then the satellites with the links are a small fraction of the total constellation and in specific orbital planes.

More Information

SpaceX engineers in Fiji for six months (FBC News)