Elon Musk’s Starlink SpaceXIt has announced an upgrade aimed at reducing the risk of interference with radio telescopes that provide high-speed broadband Internet access via a mega-constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO).

Now Starlink It operates 6,313 satellites in LEO, around 2,000 of which are Mini GEN 2A, at altitudes of around 500-600km. The company plans to add thousands more by the end of 2027. UK customers typically pay £75 per month for a 30-day period, plus £299 for hardware on the Standard plan, which promises internet latency of 25-60ms, download speeds of around 25-100Mbps, and uploads of around 5-10Mbit/s.

The company’s engineers realized that direct transmissions from satellites to radio telescopes could pose a significant risk of interfering with astronomical research. To address this issue, SpaceX worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) for several years to develop methods to reduce the risk of interference.

According to the description Starlinkengineers SpaceX and the NRAO developed techniques that allow Starlink satellites to avoid line-of-sight transmissions from radio telescopes. This is made possible using the satellite’s phased array technology, which can dynamically deflect beams away from the telescopes in milliseconds.

To implement this approach, a real-time data exchange framework was created between radio astronomy observatories and Starlink. This framework provides the Starlink network with a planned telescope observation schedule, including the telescope’s pointing direction (target axis) and frequency range. With this information, the network can dynamically side-steer beams of satellites passing near the telescope’s aiming axis.

This method is already up and running for the network Starlink and for the NRAO’s Very Large Array in New Mexico and the Green Bank Observatory in the National Radio Silence Zone in West Virginia. SpaceX plans to continue working with the radio astronomy community to expand the application of this approach to other observatories in the U.S. and beyond.

SpaceX It has also invited other radio astronomy organizations around the world to join the effort to help protect its important scientific research. But Starlink is not the only company or country planning to build a mega-constellation in low Earth orbit, and it is hoped that others will take notice.