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SpaceX Internet Satellite Network: Starlink

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That’s an interesting choice by SpaceX. Governed by France, population about 850,000, primary income source is tourism; seems like a very small market, However, Wikipedia says:

I wonder if that has something to do with Starlink being activated there?
The old ground (radio transmitter) based Omega navigation system had one of its transmitters located on Reunion:

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The old ground (radio transmitter) based Omega navigation system had one of its transmitters located on Reunion:

View attachment 902470
Yes, but I don't think that is directly relevant.

(It is indirectly relevant because Reunion being a French DOM-TOM was allied territory, and so a secure site in the relevant/required area for Omega's purposes)


The fibre backhaul for Reunion is now live, so an in-country Starlink ground station can provide an effective service to the local users.


Out of interest, is there a way of determining if a Starlink base station has gone live on Diego Garcia yet ?
 
Presumably that is for civilian commercial usage.

Would we have any way of knowing if a ground station was already live for non-civilian non-commercial traffic ?

You are posting in a Starlink thread. Starlink ground stations are for starlink service.

If there is a ground station there that isn't for Starlink service it would be a SpaceX or NASA ground station unrelated to starlink and thus off topic for this thread.
 
You are posting in a Starlink thread. Starlink ground stations are for starlink service.

If there is a ground station there that isn't for Starlink service it would be a SpaceX or NASA ground station unrelated to starlink and thus off topic for this thread.
.... Starlink ground stations + Starlink satellites = Starlink service

(even if non-commercial)
 
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.... Starlink ground stations + Starlink satellites = Starlink service

(even if non-commercial)

No, that is wrong Starlink User Terminals + Starlink ground stations + Starlink satellites = Starlink service

you left a component out.

The starlink availability map is for

* Resedential
* Business
* RV
* Maritime
* Aviation


So if you are talking about one of those uses with a starlink terminal, that is Starlink service.

If you are talking about ground stations for some device that doesn't use a starlink terminal that is not starlink.

So do you want to be more specific about your "non-civilian non-commercial traffic" or are you just speaking vaguely wondering if something is happening that you don't know about?
 
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No, that is wrong Starlink User Terminals + Starlink ground stations + Starlink satellites = Starlink service

you left a component out.

The starlink availability map is for

* Resedential
* Business
* RV
* Maritime
* Aviation


So if you are talking about one of those uses with a starlink terminal, that is Starlink service.

If you are talking about ground stations for some device that doesn't use a starlink terminal that is not starlink.

So do you want to be more specific about your "non-civilian non-commercial traffic" or are you just speaking vaguely wondering if something is happening that you don't know about?
Laser links mean not needing a local ground station.
Also, www.spacex.com/starshield
 
Laser links mean not needing a local ground station.
Also, www.spacex.com/starshield
Yep, I know all about that but dude is asking about a ground station in a specific location.

And the location he is asking about does have ground stations for space use, just not a Starlink ground station.

If anyone there wants to use a starshield terminal I think you are dead on with laser links meaning no ground station has to be built there and maybe none will ever be built there.
 
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To be honest I was just wondering if there was a way of knowing if an area was enabled for Starlink service (via ground station downlink, i.e. not using intersat laser linking) prior to it being opened for normal commercial service. Short of putting some sort of ESM system into either the local earth-area or the relevant orbital area. My guess is that it is not possible to see this info, but I figured I'd ask the hive mind here.

It was the picking of Reunion for service that got me thinking, because that in turn reminded me of the Omega location rationales etc. And that in turn reminded me of Diego Garcia and there are a lot of candidate users there who are definitely not regular commercial users, but equally it could be many other locations in the world. I fully appreciate that intersat laser links make ground stations less important, but that doesn't mean they become zero importance. So one wants ground stations where there is cable access, and Diego Garcia (like Reunion) is on a fibre route.


Instead it I found out someone got out the wrong side of bed this morning.

So, can I try asking the question again to the hive mind ? For example there must be a period when ground stations go on-test prior to being released for commercial use. Is it possible to deduce that is happening, or any other situation in which a ground station goes live for non-commercial use ?
 
I'm not sure what exactly you mean by non commercial use (maybe you mean testing, maybe it's a euphemism for military use? Maybe you are leaving room for some other implied concept you don't want to specify, maybe it's just lost in translation). But for now I'll just assume you mean testing the hardware before the site goes "live".

Ground Stations get built and are in plain open sight during construction and use. Most anywhere that has enough people to need a ground station has someone willing to track the construction and share it online. Very similar in concept to finding Supercharger locations before they are turned on.

Some get found in FCC filings and similar from other countries. Generally someone will drive out, send a drone, fly by to confirm.

Starlink US gateways - Google My Maps is a crowdsourced map of ground stations in construction and in use (and contrary to the name has ground stations not in the US in addition to the named region).

Starlink Global Gateways & PoPs - Google My Maps is another crowdsourced map.

Discover our data center locations list google data centers and there is a mention of those locations either having or intended to have a ground stations for Starlink on the Wikipedia page for Starlink.

https://starlink.sx is a good site that shows active ground stations (though it is a little busy visually and might take some effort to find them).

none of which have any reference of a station at Diego Garcia.

searches of r/starlink and r/StarlinkEngineering/ have no posts about Diego Garcia

Is it possible they started setting one up there recently and we don't know about it? Totally possible. I just don't have any reason to think one has started construction there or that one will start construction there.

Maybe someone else can chime in on a source that has better info than the ones I listed.

And I'm not sure I'm on the same page as you regarding the scenario it would be built for or the status you might think it is in.
 
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I'm not sure what exactly you mean by non commercial use (maybe you mean testing, maybe it's a euphemism for military use? Maybe you are leaving room for some other implied concept you don't want to specify, maybe it's just lost in translation). But for now I'll just assume you mean testing the hardware before the site goes "live".

Ground Stations get built and are in plain open sight during construction and use. Most anywhere that has enough people to need a ground station has someone willing to track the construction and share it online. Very similar in concept to finding Supercharger locations before they are turned on.

Some get found in FCC filings and similar from other countries. Generally someone will drive out, send a drone, fly by to confirm.

Starlink US gateways - Google My Maps is a crowdsourced map of ground stations in construction and in use (and contrary to the name has ground stations not in the US in addition to the named region).

Starlink Global Gateways & PoPs - Google My Maps is another crowdsourced map.

Discover our data center locations list google data centers and there is a mention of those locations either having or intended to have a ground stations for Starlink on the Wikipedia page for Starlink.

https://starlink.sx is a good site that shows active ground stations (though it is a little busy visually and might take some effort to find them).

none of which have any reference of a station at Diego Garcia.

searches of r/starlink and r/StarlinkEngineering/ have no posts about Diego Garcia

Is it possible they started setting one up there recently and we don't know about it? Totally possible. I just don't have any reason to think one has started construction there or that one will start construction there.

And I'm not sure I'm on the same page as you regarding the scenario it would be built for or the status you might think it is in.
Thank you.

It might be military, or other defence, or a variety of other purposes. I've not really thought through an exhaustive list.

Many of the locations of interest for such a ground station aren't really available for drive-by tracking by crowdsources. Diego Garcia isn't that accessible, definitely not the interesting bits. A lot of stuff there is not searchable or visible.

Are there any other ways known (apart from ESM/ELINT) other than visual identification, or is that pretty much the only two ways ? I'd be surprised if there were other ways, but just curious really.

(I guess visual observation by suitable satellite optics would also be an option.)
 
That’s an interesting choice by SpaceX. Governed by France, population about 850,000, primary income source is tourism; seems like a very small market, However, Wikipedia says:

I wonder if that has something to do with Starlink being activated there?

The reason it is active is most likely because it is governed by France and Starlink Is active in France. Most of the time the reason Starlink isn’t in a country is to due to that county’s slow approval process (the other reason being no ground stations nearby but with lasers that’s becoming a non issue).
 
Not easy to hide, huge equpiment, has to be spaced out, has to have a clear view of the sky if you want good performance. You could work on camouflage but there are so many cameras in space and in planes there is zero chance you are installing these anywhere without every major enemy intelligence knowing exactly where it is and how many you installed.

My stance is the US will just install them and leave them in the open anywhere they don't mind having undersea cables tapped and they'll avoid ground stations entirely for anything that truly needs to be secure. Send it up encrypted and don't put it on an undersea cable at all.

No reason to have a ground station like these if you aren't supporting hundreds of thousands to millions of users.

Some DOD site could just use a few user terminals that would be much easier to move around and camouflage. Each user terminal could be moved by one person and each one would support dozens to hundreds of users.


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Thanks.

At the really secure locations one can't just look through the fence at the interesting stuff. And the presence of a Starlink ground station might itself draw attention to there being something of interest in the area that was worth pursuing further.

Nonetheless in their current public iteration these ground stations do look pretty obvious from above. For satellite imagery, or for ballon imagery !

Interesting.