cycle
One of the big challenges for Starlink is that the satellites themselves often change. Starlink says that they’ve never had a launch in which the satellites going into the constellation hadn’t changed from the last launch. In most environments, this would be a major problem (read: recipe for disaster.) Starlink has solved this problem by putting software developers directly into the manufacturing cycle. Instead of new hardware being “thrown over the wall” to developers, the software developer...
cycle
One of the big challenges for Starlink is that the satellites themselves often change. Starlink says that they’ve never had a launch in which the satellites going into the constellation hadn’t changed from the last launch. In most environments, this would be a major problem (read: recipe for disaster.) Starlink has solved this problem by putting software developers directly into the manufacturing cycle. Instead of new hardware being “thrown over the wall” to developers, the software developer...
Earth
Starlink software, both in satellites and on the ground, is written almost exclusively in C++, with some prototyping development in Python. The software is developed in a continuous integration environment, with teams merging into the master development branch often and deploying to the fleet of satellites in space each week. “We use C++ for most of the vehicle control software. There is a lot of heritage with it at SpaceX as it’s a very low-level language we can use on bare metal microcontro...
Earth
Starlink software, both in satellites and on the ground, is written almost exclusively in C++, with some prototyping development in Python. The software is developed in a continuous integration environment, with teams merging into the master development branch often and deploying to the fleet of satellites in space each week. “We use C++ for most of the vehicle control software. There is a lot of heritage with it at SpaceX as it’s a very low-level language we can use on bare metal microcontro...
satellites
Of course, the Starlink satellites present their own problems. Each satellite is responsible not only for maintaining connections to the ground stations that are in view, but unlike most satellites, the Starlink ones are largely navigating themselves. When you’re launching hundreds of satellites, there’s no time to place each one into its own specific orbit; instead, ground control tasks each satellite with a place in the constellation, and the satellite steers itself into place. The Earth-si...
satellites
Of course, the Starlink satellites present their own problems. Each satellite is responsible not only for maintaining connections to the ground stations that are in view, but unlike most satellites, the Starlink ones are largely navigating themselves. When you’re launching hundreds of satellites, there’s no time to place each one into its own specific orbit; instead, ground control tasks each satellite with a place in the constellation, and the satellite steers itself into place. The Earth-si...
roof
The current Starlink constellation consists of hundreds of small, low-cost satellites in low Earth orbit, and the company aims to scale this to thousands. The low altitude is necessary to provide low latency. Current geostationary satellites orbit 26,200 miles from the center of the earth and 22,300 miles above the surface, meaning a signal takes roughly 0.240 seconds to make a round trip. Starlink is currently in orbit at 340 miles, cutting the speed of light lag to almost a hundredth of tha...
roof
The current Starlink constellation consists of hundreds of small, low-cost satellites in low Earth orbit, and the company aims to scale this to thousands. The low altitude is necessary to provide low latency. Current geostationary satellites orbit 26,200 miles from the center of the earth and 22,300 miles above the surface, meaning a signal takes roughly 0.240 seconds to make a round trip. Starlink is currently in orbit at 340 miles, cutting the speed of light lag to almost a hundredth of tha...
Network protocols
There are requirements that make software engineers sweat. Massive distribution to thousands of nodes. High reliability and availability. Multiple distinct platforms. Rapid network growth. Hardware platforms that change in days or weeks. Now put your production platforms into space. This is the world SpaceX’s Starlink program, which has set a goal to provide high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. Stack Overflow spoke ...
Network protocols
There are requirements that make software engineers sweat. Massive distribution to thousands of nodes. High reliability and availability. Multiple distinct platforms. Rapid network growth. Hardware platforms that change in days or weeks. Now put your production platforms into space. This is the world SpaceX’s Starlink program, which has set a goal to provide high-speed broadband internet to locations where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable. Stack Overflow spoke ...
