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SpaceX Teams Up With Google to Develop Satellite Internet Services

On May 13th, Google announced it's joining forces with SpaceX to provide cloud services via Elon Musk's satellite internet constellation. Starlink ground stations will be located inside the giant tech company's data centers, giving businesses secure access to the cloud and internet via Google Cloud's infrastructure.
60 Starlink satellites stacked together before deployment in 2019 1 photo
Photo: SpaceX
This isn't the first partnership of this kind, though. Last October, Microsoft teamed up with SpaceX to connect the Azure cloud computing network to the Starlink satellite internet service. Now, it seems like Google is trying to catch up to its competition.

As part of this partnership, SpaceX will begin locating Starlink ground stations within Google data centers, enabling the stable, low-latency, and efficient delivery of data from more than 1,500 satellites launched into orbit to network edge locations via Google Cloud.

Google Cloud's private network would facilitate the distribution of Starlink's global satellite internet service, providing companies and customers with cloud and Internet access and allowing the delivery of essential enterprise applications.

Organizations with broad footprints (public sector agencies, businesses with presences at the network edge, or those operating in rural or remote areas), often require access to applications running in the cloud or to cloud services like analytics, artificial intelligence, or machine learning.

The connectivity from Starlink's constellation of low-orbit satellites will create a path for these organizations to send data and applications fast and secure to their teams that are scattered all over the world. The service is expected to be available in the second half of this year, Google notes.

Starlink is now preparing to launch its satellite-based broadband internet system, seeking to become one of the largest space-based networks that promise to reach locations where internet access has been unreliable or completely unavailable.

As of May 9th, SpaceX has launched 1,553 operational Starlink satellites into orbit, making it the world's largest satellite constellation. In 2019, the initial plan was to deploy 12,000 satellites, but the aim was raised to eventually have around 42,000 circling Earth. Last week, SpaceX announced that more than 500,000 people have already placed an order for the Starlink internet service.
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About the author: Florina Spînu
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Florina taught herself how to drive in a Daewoo Tico (a rebadged Suzuki Alto kei car) but her first "real car" was a VW Golf. When she’s not writing about cars, drones or aircraft, Florina likes to read anything related to space exploration and take pictures in the middle of nature.
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