(Photo illustration by Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
After transmitting some text messages, SpaceX’s cellular Starlink system has now posted a tweet.
"This post was sent through a SpaceX Direct to Cell satellite in space," SpaceX wrote on X on Sunday night. The demo means SpaceX used an unmodified smartphone on the ground to send the tweet. But rather than ferry the post to a traditional cell network, it was radioed into space to an orbiting Starlink satellite capable of beaming data to the internet.
SpaceX Senior Director of Satellite Engineering Ben Longmier added that the tweet and some direct messages were sent from a phone in Santa Cruz, California, even though there was plenty of tree cover.
"Also interesting that these sats have by far the strongest cell signal at my house, just 15 miles outside the heart of Silicon Valley," he said on X, previously Twitter.
SpaceX developed the technology so that cell phones can receive text, voice and internet access everywhere, even in dead zones. Last month, the company launched the first “Direct Cell” Starlink satellites into space, which were later used to successfully relay text messages between two smartphones on the ground. Sunday’s demo now shows that the same technology can also enable internet access.
SpaceX may have posted the tweet in a bid to attract mobile carriers to adopt the cellular Starlink system. The company is among the exhibitors at this year’s Mobile World Congress, which is being held this week in Barcelona, Spain.
SpaceX plans on rolling out access to the cellular Starlink system later this year, pending approval from the FCC. The company plans on first offering support for text messages before expanding to voice and data in 2025. But in the US, only T-Mobile has said it’ll offer the technology to its customers. Other partners include Japan’s KDDI, Australia’s Optus, and Canada’s Rogers Communications, among others.