Losing $1 billion in support from the FCC last week, SpaceX company has found a new resource to develop the Starlink project.
Last week, the US Federal Communications Board (FCC) canceled its $866 million support to SpaceX for Starlink satellites, citing the high subscription fee and doubts about internet speed.
When the company lost close to 1 billion dollars of support, it decided to continue the Starlink project with its own resources. However, according to the latest news, SpaceX has found a new resource to develop the Starlink project.
The US Air Force has decided to give SpaceX $1.9 million to test whether Starlink can support military bases in Europe and Africa.
It is stated that SpaceX’s broadband satellite internet service was chosen because it is the only company with sufficiently wide coverage. SpaceX has launched more than 3,000 Starlink satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for the Starlink project.
The US Air Force also interviewed other businesses such as OneWeb, Amazon Kuiper, and Telesat. However, Starlink was preferred after it was determined that these companies did not yet have the infrastructure to support the US facilities in Europe and Africa.
“After extensive research, SpaceX Starlink has been found to be the only vendor able to provide this special communications service at the required time in its current operating areas,” it said regarding the agreement between Starlink and the US Air Force.
SpaceX will provide internet service to the US Air Force with 500 Mbps download speed from August 2022 to the end of July 2023.
The contract is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (ARFL) Global Lightning program testing to use commercial satellite network providers in military operations outside of the United States. Within the scope of the Global Lightning program, Starlink will be used in the US bases in Europe, especially the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.
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