It’s all coming together.

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SpaceX is deploying a megaconstellation of internet-beaming Starlink satellites to provide internet service to rural areas around Earth where service is unreliable and not available. The Starlink network could provide SpaceX with additional funding to develop a fleet of Starships to colonize Mars.

The company already launched approximately 888 Starlink satellites to low Earth orbit out of over 4,000 that will be part of the broadband network. Starlink customers will receive low-latency, high-speed broadband service from the satellites via a dish user terminal and Wi-Fi router device.

SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell revealed this week that the company also plans to provide high-speed internet on the Red Planet one day. In an interview with Time Magazine, she shared the reasons why SpaceX is creating the Starlink network. One of the reasons is to maintain communication with a future Mars colony. —“Once we take people to Mars, they are going to need a capability to communicate,” she said, “In fact, I think it will be even more critical to have a constellation like Starlink around Mars. And then, of course, you need to connect the two planets as well,” Shotwell told reporters.