From Earth.
And back.

A spacecraft in low Earth orbit travels roughly 7–8 kilometres every second. Gravity bends its path around Earth. Astronauts float because they and their spacecraft fall together; gravity at the International Space Station is still about 90% as strong as at the surface. NASA: free fall and gravity.

A rocket pushes exhaust backward and gains forward momentum. It carries both fuel and oxidizer, so it needs no surrounding air to burn or push against. Once coasting in space, it does not need continuous thrust to keep moving. NASA: rocket thrust.

Starlink specifies V3 design capacities of 1 Tbps downlink and 160 Gbps uplink, with 2,048 beams in each direction. Twenty-six satellites imply 26 Tbps of aggregate design downlink capacity by simple multiplication. That is shared capacity across the fleet, not a speed promised to one customer or one location. Starlink: V3 specifications.

Each V3 carries six laser links rated at 400 Gbps each. These connect satellites to one another; user terminals communicate by radio. A 400 Gbps link is about 7.1 million times a nominal 56 kbps dial-up link—not 10 billion times. This compares rated bit rates, not end-to-end internet performance. Starlink: laser network.

Starlink documents argon Hall-effect thrusters for V2 Mini: electrically accelerated ions provide thrust for orbit raising, manoeuvres and disposal. A satellite coasts between manoeuvres; “the thrusters must run continuously” is too strong. This technology reference does not establish a two-to-four-month commissioning time for Flight 14’s payload. Starlink: 2024 technology report.

The upper atmosphere is extremely thin, but it still slows satellites. At lower altitudes, failed spacecraft generally reenter sooner. The tradeoff is more drag to compensate for during operation. Starlink’s current altitude table lists V3 broadband at 330–360 km; those are operational constellation plans, not measured deployment altitudes for this film. Starlink: constellation altitudes.

A collision can produce fragments that cause more collisions. Over time, that can make some orbital regions much harder to use. It does not mean one launch seals off all access to space. Reliable disposal, collision avoidance and debris removal matter alongside altitude. ESA: the space debris environment.

During entry, strong shock waves compress and heat the gas. Drag removes the spacecraft’s enormous orbital energy; thermal protection limits heat entering its structure. At the same mass, kinetic energy scales with speed squared: halving speed removes 75% of it. NASA: entry systems.

Shorter radio paths reduce signal travel time. Actual latency also includes routing, ground infrastructure, congestion and the destination server. A satellite’s terabit capacity cannot establish an individual customer’s ping, subscriber count or direct connectivity to a car or robot. Starlink: service performance and limitations.

Starlink says V3 solar arrays generate about twice the power of V2 arrays. It manufactures the solar blanket as a continuous roll, cuts 19-metre segments, then joins four segments per array. More electrical power supports the satellite’s larger communications workload. Starlink: V3 power system.