Satellite internet constellation


A satellite internet constellation—sometimes referred to as a megaconstellation
—is a large constellation of artificial satellites orbiting in low-Earth orbit, working together to provide high-throughput satellite communication to facilitate low-latency broadband internet service to various business and individual nodes on the surface of Earth.
More than 18,000 new satellites have been proposed to be launched and placed in LEO orbits between 2019 and 2025. This is more than ten times as many satellites as the sum of all active satellites in space as of March 2018.
While more-limited satellite internet services have been available through geosynchronous commsats orbiting in the Clarke Belt for years, these have been of quite limited bandwidth, high-latency, and provided at such a relatively high price that demand for the services offered has been quite low.
Satellite internet constellations have been proposed and under development since 2014. Internet sat constellations are planned by
OneWeb,
SpaceX,
Amazon,
Samsung, Boeing, and China, among others.