SpaceX has launched a dedicated website for its next-generation Starlink V3 satellites, revealing their key specifications.
The company promises a major leap in performance: each satellite’s data throughput will increase roughly tenfold compared to the Starlink V2, reaching 1 Tbps for data downloads. The uplink speed from users will see an even more dramatic boost, rising to 160 Gbps—approximately 22 times higher than the previous generation.
The number of communication beams will also see a substantial increase. Each satellite will feature 2,048 beams for both transmitting and receiving data, up from 192 and 144 respectively on the Starlink V2. This improvement is made possible by new phased-array antennas and custom chips developed by SpaceX. Additionally, the new modems will be able to handle roughly 64 times more traffic per chip, dynamically allocating network resources among users.
Each Starlink V3 satellite will be equipped with six laser communication links, each operating at 400 Gbps, creating a global inter-satellite data exchange network. It will also include four multi-band radio frequency antennas, while the capacity of communication channels with ground infrastructure will increase more than eightfold, reaching 1.2 Tbps.
The next-generation solar panels will generate twice as much energy, with their design optimized to reduce atmospheric drag in low Earth orbit. SpaceX also reports that a single Starship launch carrying Starlink V3 satellites will provide roughly 20 times the total network capacity compared to a Falcon 9 launch with Starlink V2 satellites.
In the future, Starlink V3 technology will serve as the foundation for the Starlink Mobile Gen 2 satellites, which will be capable of delivering LTE-level speeds to standard smartphones without any modifications.
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