SpaceX is starting to sell a new Starlink dish for boats that’s designed to survive hurricanes.
Right as Hurricane Ian hit Florida on Wednesday, the company began offering the new “flat high performance” dish through the Starlink Maritime service, which is designed for yachts and commercial ships.
The previous Starlink Maritime dish was mounted over a four-legged stand. The new model ditches the stand and is designed to lay flat while facing the sky to receive satellite internet.
The hardware includes a “wedge mount,” which the dish can be installed over to create an elevated angle, allowing rainwater to fall off the surface. The dish also has IP56 waterproof rating, meaning it can withstand high-pressure water jets from any direction.
On Wednesday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted about Starlink Maritime, saying it can offer “high speed Internet connectivity even in heavy seas & hurricane winds.”
It's certainly not a good idea to take a boat into a hurricane. But Musk points out the new dish has been designed to survive winds at over 174 miles per hour. For perspective, a category 5 hurricane can cause wind speeds to reach over 157mph. (Starlink’s other high-performance dish can only withstand winds at over 50mph.)
The new dish isn’t cheap, though. The hardware for Starlink Maritime still costs a one-time $10,000 fee. But like before, buyers will receive two dishes they can place on their boats. Customers also have to pay $5,000 per month to receive internet from the service.
For now, the new flat high-performance dish is only for Starlink Maritime. But we wouldn’t be surprised if SpaceX began offering a similar model for moving planes and cars. In June, the FCC cleared the company to bring Starlink to moving vehicles. SpaceX is now testing expanding Starlink to school buses in rural parts of the US.