SpaceX launches Starlink v2 satellites with Direct to Cell capability in their first launch of 2024

Starlink satellites 🛰 V2 mini. Credit: SpaceX 

Florida — SpaceX has successfully launched its first batch of Starlink satellites designed to connect directly to unmodified smartphones on Jan. 2 after getting a temporary experimental license to start testing the capability in the United States.

Six of the 21 Starlink satellites that launched on a Falcon 9 rocket at 03:44 UTC from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, carrying a payload that the company said could provide connectivity for most 4G LTE devices when in range.

SpaceX plans to start enabling texting from space this year in partnership with cellular operators, with voice and data connectivity coming in 2025, although the company still needs regulatory permission to provide the services commercially.

Initial direct-to-smartphone tests would use cellular spectrum from SpaceX’s U.S. mobile partner T-Mobile. SpaceX has also partnered with mobile operators in Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

Its first direct-to-cell launch was originally slated for mid-December, but was delayed to become SpaceX’s first mission in 2024 and 296th overall.

This was also the first flight for the booster B1082-1 on the Falcon 9 mission, which successfully landed shortly after lift-off on a drone ship named 'Of course I Still Love You' positioned 642 km downrange in the Pacific Ocean for reuse.

SpaceX announced that the Falcon 9 had deployed all 21 Starlink satellites to the low earth orbit (LEO).

SpaceX says Starlink satellites equipped with its direct-to-cell payload would be able to act as a cellphone tower in space.
The 15 Starlink V2 Mini satellites on the mission will add more capacity to SpaceX’s existing low Earth orbit broadband constellation with 4833 active satellites, which provides high-speed broadband to tailor-made fixed and mobile satellite user terminals.

Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, in his post on X (formally known as Twitter) said that, " This will allow for mobile phone connectivity anywhere on Earth.
Note, this only supports ~7Mb per beam and the beams are very big, so while this is a great solution for locations with no cellular connectivity, it is not meaningfully competitive with existing terrestrial cellular networks."