SpaceX’s Starlink team is developing interplanetary gigabit communications technology that will work anywhere on the Moon. A new network of optical lasers is being designed specifically to connect lunar rovers, habitat modules, and astronauts across the entire surface of the Earth’s moon.
SpaceX’s Starlink team is developing interplanetary gigabit communications technology that will work anywhere on the Moon. A new network of optical lasers is being designed specifically to connect lunar rovers, habitat modules, and astronauts across the entire surface of the Earth’s moon.
The company’s plans were revealed in SpaceX’s recent IPO prospectus, published in May 2026, as well as Starlink’s social media posts, which outline a strategy to build lunar IT infrastructure, extract resources, and deploy orbital AI data centers.
Starlink satellites are already using optical inter-satellite communication channels («space lasers»), capable of providing speeds of 100 to 200 Gbps per channel. There are more than 10,000 active Starlink satellites in low Earth orbit, transmitting huge amounts of information every day with an uptime rate of more than 99%. The system uses the near-infrared wavelength range of about 1550 nm, which is well-studied and reliable for telecommunications.
However, scaling this technology to the distance of the Moon (about 384,000 km from Earth) is a serious engineering challenge. SpaceX specialists will have to solve complex tasks related to orbital mechanics, the accuracy of beam guidance at such a distance, and compensation for atmospheric interference during signal reception by ground stations. There is no exact timeline for the project’s implementation yet — the idea is still at the research and design stage.
The Starlink team is exploring ways to extend connectivity beyond our planet pic.twitter.com/MJLKNvWdxK
— Starlink (@Starlink) May 21, 2026
These initiatives are part of SpaceX’s larger lunar program. The company already has a contract with NASA to use a modified Starship as an astronaut landing system for the Artemis mission. Reliable, high-bandwidth communications are essential for long-term operations on the surface of the moon. The Starlink laser network could be a much more powerful alternative to NASA’s current Deep Space Network.
In addition to communications, SpaceX sees the Moon as a future industrial hub. The company plans to create facilities on its surface for assembling satellites and solar panels that will power artificial intelligence supercomputers. The material for the solar panels — silicon dioxide — as well as minerals such as aluminum, iron, and titanium are planned to be mined directly on the Moon, which will significantly reduce logistics costs from Earth.
«Our mission is to create the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, understand the true nature of the universe, and spread the light of consciousness to the stars,» SpaceX’s prospectus states.
SpaceX and NASA have previously conducted tests of optical communications in deep space. In particular, as part of the Psyche mission, a laser device successfully transmitted data to Earth from a distance of tens of millions of kilometers. And in early April 2026, NASA, together with MIT Lincoln Laboratory, launched the MAScOT laser communication terminal aboard the Orion spacecraft as part of the Artemis II mission, which laid the foundation for future manned lunar networks.
