The Air Force is using SpaceX's fledgling satellite network to test encrypt...
WASHINGTON - The Air Force is using SpaceX’s fledgling satellite network to test encrypted internet services for a number of military planes, the space company’s president said on Tuesday, detailing results for the first customer of Elon Musk’s planned constellation of thousands of broadband-beaming satellites.
“We are delivering high bandwidth into the cockpit of Air Force planes,” SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said on Tuesday. “Right now we’re just testing the capability and figuring out how to make it work.” The Air Force program, known as Global Lightning, started testing with SpaceX in early 2018 and used Starlink’s first two test satellites to beam to terminals fixed to a C-12 military transport plane in flight, demonstrating internet speeds of 610 megabits per-second, SpaceX Senior Vice President Tim Hughes said. That’s fast enough to download a movie in under a minute.
Shotwell said the program, part of a $28 million Pentagon contract awarded to SpaceX in late 2018, is ongoing and expects to test Starlink with “a number” of additional military aircraft types. That contract also includes testing communications between satellites in orbit.
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