The new capabilities are expected to be available in the second half of 2021
Under a new partnership, SpaceX — Elon Musk’s private American aerospace company — will begin to locate its Starlink ground stations within Google Cloud’s data center properties. This, say the companies, will enable data to be delivered securely, reliably and with low latency from more than 1,500 Starlink satellites.
Approximately the size of a table and weighing 500 lbs., each Starlink satellite beams information through space, traveling 47% faster than in fiber-optic cable, according to Business Insider. By hovering lower than current satellites, Starlink satellites also promise improved latency improvement over current satellite internet services, which use large spacecrafts orbiting 22,236 miles above Earth.
“Combining Starlink’s high-speed, low-latency broadband with Google’s infrastructure and capabilities provides global organizations with the secure and fast connection that modern organizations expect,” said SpaceX president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell. “We are proud to work with Google to deliver this access to businesses, public sector organizations and many other groups operating around the world.”
Google Cloud’s high-capacity private network will support the delivery of Starlink’s global satellite internet service, connecting businesses and consumers to the cloud and Internet, as well as enabling the delivery of critical enterprise applications to virtually any location. Further, Starlink’s constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites provides enterprises a path to distribute data and applications to teams across the world, quickly and securely. These new capabilities are expected to be available in the second half of 2021.
“Applications and services running in the cloud can be transformative for organizations, whether they’re operating in a highly networked or remote environment,” said Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of infrastructure at Google Cloud. “We are delighted to partner with SpaceX to ensure that organizations with distributed footprints have seamless, secure, and fast access to the critical applications and services they need to keep their teams up and running.”
