TinTin A and B delivering 25 milliseconds latency
May 29, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to give a progress update on the first pair of ‘Starlink’ satellites, launched back on February 22nd.
These two test satellites, named by Musk as TinTin A and B (although official named as Microsat 2a and Microsat 2b) are the first of a massive constellation planned by Musk to girdle the Earth and provide low-cost broadband and Internet to the planet.
Musk, in his May 26th Tweet, said both satellite were working well as delivering low-latency communications with the ground, at just 25 milliseconds, and thus “good enough to play fast-response video games,” he added.
The deployment and usage of these two test craft still clearly have more development work ahead of them. A couple of hours after his first message (at 1.19am on May 27th) he Tweeted that his SpaceX and Starlink engineers will do another “rev” before final design. One can only assume he means ‘revision’.
SpaceX’s filings with the FCC suggest Musk has ground-based receive/transit terminals at a pair of locations in Washington State, as well as its Hawthorne rocket facility near Los Angeles and at the Tesla car factory in Fremont, California.