Tim Peake's Direct-to-Cell Satellite Call

This is a news story, published by MailOnline, that relates primarily to Tim Peake news.

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MailOnline

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Science

Elon Musk LOSES space race to British astronaut Tim Peake

Summary

Nutrition label

74% Informative

Vodafone has managed to make the first ever direct-to-cell satellite video call.

Tim Peake was the first British astronaut to live on the International Space Station .

The call was made possible by a series of extremely large communications satellites in orbit.

The satellites are so far above the Earth , they can provide coverage to areas where it isn't possible to build cellular towers.

By launching aboard SpaceX rockets, Starlink has already managed to put 6,912 communications satellites, including about 330 which are direct-to-cell capable. That gives Starlink the potential to provide much more coverage than the five satellites used by Vodafone could offer. However, Mr Peake believes that Musk 's advantage might not last much longer. He says: 'We have SpaceX dominating the launch market but they're about to have some serious competition. 'What that’s doing is bringing down the cost of access to space, which means we can do more in space.'.

VR Score

Informative language

Neutral language

Article tone

semi-formal

Language

English

Language complexity

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful