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SpaceX is starting to release more details about its Starlink internet satellites. On 3 September, the firm launched its 12th batch of the satellites from Cape Canaveral in Florida and released some early information about the satellite constellation鈥檚 capabilities.

So far, SpaceX has launched 715 Starlink satellites, with plans to put nearly 12,000 satellites in orbit and possibly expand to as many as 42,000. The goal of this swarm of satellites is to provide internet around the world, particularly in areas where access has so far been unreliable or nonexistent.

During the webcast of the 3 September launch, SpaceX engineer Kate Tice said that the first phase of testing the satellites鈥� capabilities has already begun. 鈥淲e鈥檙e checking how fast data travels from the satellites to our customers, and then back to the rest of the internet,鈥� she said. 鈥淚nitial results have been good.鈥�

Those tests showed download speeds higher than 100 megabits per second. 鈥淥ur download speed is fast enough to stream multiple HD movies at once and still have bandwidth to spare,鈥� Tice says. SpaceX has claimed that Starlink will eventually be able to provide gigabit speeds once more satellites are operating.

Meanwhile, the firm is already starting to roll out new capabilities: Tice also announced that SpaceX has successfully tested their inter-satellite links nicknamed 鈥渟pace lasers鈥� that allow the satellites to quickly communicate with one another.

鈥淲ith these space lasers the Starlink satellites were able to transfer hundreds of gigabytes of data,鈥� Tice said. 鈥淥nce these space lasers are fully deployed, Starlink will be one of the fastest options available to transfer data around the world.鈥�

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