Elon Musk’s space technology giant SpaceX shared exciting details about the next generation ‘V3’ Starlink satellites in its annual progress report. The company announced that each of these satellites will have 1 Tbps download and 160 Gbps upload capacity. This represents a 10-fold increase in download speed and a 24-fold increase in upload speed compared to the current V2 Mini satellites.

For perspective, the current V2 mini satellites offer only 96 Gbps download bandwidth. The report also states that Starlink’s cumulative network capacity is currently close to 350 Tbps. The company offers speeds close to 100 to 200Mbps in the US; the target is 1 gigabit and 2 gigabit download speeds.

More capacity on the way with Starship

The next generation of V3 Starlink satellites is planned to be launched on SpaceX’s future ‘Starship’ rocket. This will make it possible to transport satellites with greater capacity. Each Starship launch will add 60 Tbps of capacity to the Starlink network, the company said. This is 20 times more capacity than the V2 Mini satellites launched by the Falcon 9 rocket. This shows that Starship can carry 60 V3 Starlink satellites per launch.

SpaceX Starlink Vice President Michael Nicolls said on social media platform X that V3 satellites will increase scalability in the densest parts of the network and offer gigabit connectivity to individual user terminals.

4.6 million active customers

SpaceX announced that Starlink currently serves 4.6 million active customers worldwide. It has also built a production facility in Texas capable of producing 5.5 million Starlink dishes per year. In 2024, a total of 3.9 million customer kits were reportedly produced at all of the company’s facilities.

Meanwhile, it is not yet clear when Starship will begin actual missions carrying Starlink satellites. However, the company aims to carry out another test launch on 10 January.