Photo: Nathan Owens
SpaceX’s Gateway network for its Starlink internet service is expanding, and Microsoft is among the companies set to help it do so.
SpaceX will use Microsoft data centers to host some of its Starlink Gateways, as spotted by @Nathan Owens in satellite images and shared on Thursday.
The satellite imagery shows large plots of land where Microsoft’s data centers are located, mostly including parking lots with surrounding buildings that will reportedly host Starlink Gateways for SpaceX.
Owens also pointed out that a Google data center in The Dalles, Oregon, is expected to host Gateways for SpaceX, though he wasn’t able to spot any activity in the region from the satellite imagery.
Microsoft datacenters that are soon to play host to some Starlink Gateways… Nothing there yet. All recent (Nov) satellite imaging. cc @mikepuchol pic.twitter.com/RT1KxxvYrR
— Nathan Owens (@VirtuallyNathan) December 5, 2022
These Microsoft and Google data centers are all part of 27 new locations for Starlink ground sites that SpaceX submitted applications for earlier this year (via Reddit).
The news comes just a few days after filings showed that SpaceX is constructing Gateway “Megasites” for its second-generation Starlink satellites.
Starlink has also been praised at both the South Pole and the North Pole in recent months for offering unprecedented levels of internet connectivity despite the harsh climate in these regions.
In addition, SpaceX has been expanding Starlink’s coverage over the past several months, most recently expanding further North to remote locations in Northern Europe, Canada, and Alaska.
Furthermore, Starlink is now available on the highly remote Easter Island and Pitcairn Island, both of which are over 1,000 miles away from large land masses.
Update (December 8, 1:30 p.m. ET): Updated to add that the locations were part of previous SpaceX filings from earlier this year.Â
