How SpaceX plans to keep satellites flying with Adelanto ground station

Rene Ray De La Cruz, Victorville Daily Press
·2 min read
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This photo shows a Starlink ground station operating in Lithuania. SpaceX has chosen Adelanto for a ground facility site to support the company’s next-generation of satellites.
This photo shows a Starlink ground station operating in Lithuania. SpaceX has chosen Adelanto for a ground facility site to support the company’s next-generation of satellites.

City officials announced that SpaceX has chosen Adelanto for a Starlink ground infrastructure facility site to support the company’s next-generation of satellites.

“We continue to strengthen our position as an innovative and business-friendly city that partners with the state to attract cutting edge technologies and institutional players,” said Mayor Gabriel Reyes in a press release. “Such projects will create well-paying jobs and improve the quality of life of our residents.”

City leaders referenced an Federal Communications Commission filing and online article by Data Center Dynamics, which highlights the SpaceX project designed to deliver faster internet speeds from Starlink's low-orbiting satellite network.

The Adelanto site is part of the SpaceX Starlink plan to expand its ground station infrastructure across the U.S. as the company plans to launch its fleet of second-generation satellites.

Ground stations link the satellites with the internet data centers on the ground, which connect to existing fiber-optic infrastructures2, which link to the world wide web.

Nathan Owens, a CDN Reliability Engineer at Netflix who regularly posts about Starlink news, said in December, 2022, that SpaceX filed with the FCC to build or upgrade around 21 U.S. gateway sites with E-band capabilities that will provide greater uplink and downlink speeds.

Owens took to Twitter to post a satellite photo and to say that he found in Adelanto “both an 8 gateway enclouse and a 32 gateway enclosure. Some of these sites might have 40 antennas!”

The "Los Angeles Gateway Earth Station" facility is located west of Highway 395 and near El Mirage Road, and includes eight antennas, which are each 5-feet in diameter, according to the FCC.

Besides Adelanto, the list of other Starlink sites includes locations in:

  • Anderson, South Carolina

  • Benkelman, Nebraska

  • Blountsville, Alabama

  • Savannah, Tennessee

  • Surrency, Georgia

  • Arlington, Oregon

  • Marshall, Texas

  • Prosser, Washington

  • Romulus, New York

  • Sheffield, Illinois

  • Clinton, Illinois

  • Savanna, Illinois

  • Brunswick, Maine

  • Elkton, Maryland

  • Roberts, Wisconsin

  • York, Pennsylvania

  • Port Matilda, Pennsylvania

A SpaceX launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base.
A SpaceX launch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

With these new locations, SpaceX has applied for 99 unique gateway sites in 38 states, Guam and Puerto Rico, said Owens.

Owens also noted that SpaceX has filed with the Federal Communications Commission for special temporary permission to operate its gateways in the E-band while the FCC reviews a full application.

The FCC granted SpaceX approval on Dec. 1, 2022, to launch up to 7,500 of its planned 29,988-spacecraft Starlink Gen2 constellation. The regulatory agency deferred a decision on the remaining satellites SpaceX proposed for Gen2, according to the company.

Among six SpaceX rocket launches in December, two carried a total of more than 100 Starlink satellites. The second launch reportedly carried 54 Gen2 machines.

Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at 760-951-6227 or RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DP_ReneDeLaCruz

This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: SpaceX plans to keep satellites flying with Adelanto ground station