Are there different generations of Starlink satellites? What are the differences between them?

Yes, Starlink satellites have indeed gone through several generations, constantly updating and iterating, much like our mobile phones. Each generation aims to be more powerful than the last, with the goal of providing better and faster satellite internet service.

Simply put, you can think of them as several main versions:

Early Test Version (v0.9)

These were the earliest "pathfinders."

• Features: Launched once in 2019, deploying 60 satellites at a time. Their primary purpose was to test core technologies and deployment methods, such as how satellites are "ejected" from the rocket and how they arrange themselves in orbit.
• Differences: Their functionality was quite basic, and many technologies were still immature. You can consider them engineering prototypes; most deorbited and burned up after completing their test missions.

First Generation (v1.0) - The Main Force

These formed the initial backbone of the Starlink network. Most of the Starlink services available today rely on them.

• Features: Large-scale launches began in late 2019, with thousands of them now in orbit. This generation of satellites transformed the Starlink network from "unavailable" to "basically available."
• Differences: Compared to the test versions, they are more mature and stable. However, early v1.0 satellites had a minor issue: they were too bright, easily captured in night sky photos, affecting astronomical observations. SpaceX later added something called "VisorSat" to them, which dimmed the satellites and reduced light pollution.

<center>VisorSat: Giving satellites "sunglasses"</center>

First Generation Upgraded Version (v1.5) - The "Space Laser" Powerhouse

This is a significant upgrade to v1.0 and is currently one of the main satellites being launched.

• Features: The biggest upgrade is the addition of Inter-satellite laser links.
• Differences: These "space lasers" are key. In the v1.0 era, satellite signals needed to travel from your dish to the satellite in space, then from the satellite to a ground station, before connecting to the internet. If there was no ground station near your location (e.g., in the middle of the ocean, or at the North/South Pole), you couldn't get online.
  • With "space lasers," satellites can directly "talk" to each other in space using lasers, transmitting data to companions thousands of kilometers away that do have ground stations. This is like building an invisible "fiber optic network" in space.
  • Benefits:
    1. Global Coverage: Truly achieves global coverage, allowing internet access even in areas without ground stations, such as oceans, deserts, and polar regions.
    2. Lower Latency: Light travels faster in a vacuum than through fiber optics, so theoretically, data can take a "shortcut" through space faster than via undersea cables.

<center>Inter-satellite laser link diagram</center>

Second Generation (v2.0) - Future "Behemoths"

This represents the future of Starlink, with a qualitative leap in performance, but it also faces a "happy problem"—they are too large.

• Features: Both their size and solar array area are much larger than the first generation, with a single satellite's capacity (number of users it can serve and internet speed) being several times that of v1.5.
• Differences:
  • V2 Mini: Because the full-sized V2 satellites are too large and heavy for the current Falcon 9 rocket, they have to wait for Elon Musk's Starship spacecraft to be ready. To avoid delays, SpaceX first developed a "mini version" of the V2 satellite, launched by the Falcon 9 rocket. Although smaller than the full V2, its performance already far exceeds v1.5.
  • Full V2: This is the ultimate form of Starlink, designed specifically for Starship. Once Starship can launch stably and frequently, these giants will be sent into space. At that point, the total capacity of the entire Starlink network will experience explosive growth, greatly alleviating issues like "peak time slowdowns" that we currently complain about.

Summary

So, Starlink's development path is clear: first, build the framework with v1.0, then connect the world with v1.5's "space lasers," and finally, use v2.0 as the "game-changer" to boost overall service quality and capacity.