Neowin

The Rhineland-Palatinate state authority in Germany has announced today that it has set up 12 Starlink satellite dishes that will help the flood-affected people. More dishes will be deployed later.

The German government is formulating a plan that would see it subsidise the hardware costs for internet satellite hardware from the likes of Starlink. Starlink sells this hardware for $499 normally.

Google Cloud and SpaceX today announced a new partnership in which Starlink satellite internet will rely on Google's private fiber-optic network to quickly make connections to cloud services.

The upcoming week of rocket launches is fairly routine, SpaceX is hoping to launch more Starlink satellites and Virgin Galactic could also fly its SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity rocketplane.

It's a quiet week in terms of rocket launches this week. If we are lucky, we should see SpaceX launch its Starship SN15 from Boca Chica, Texas, as it attempts to perform its first smooth landing.

SpaceX is planning to launch its Starship SN11 sometime this week. The firm still hasn't performed a perfect landing of the craft but it has been improving its technique after each test.

There are four planned rocket launches this week, two from SpaceX, one from Rocket Lab, and another from the Chinese National Space Administration. Rocket Lab's mission was delayed from last week.

The UN and the UK have signed an agreement which promotes the safe and sustainable use of space. The UK has created an £85,000 fund to promote the agreement's guidelines around the world

Starlink, the satellite-based internet service developed by SpaceX, is opening up its beta program to more customers, promising speeds up to 150Mbps. However, it costs nearly $600 upfront.

A paper has looked at the expected effect of internet satellites on telescope astronomy. It said the issue is manageable and that the first and last hours of the night will be impacted most.

SpaceX is set to shed about 600 jobs in order to become leaner and adapt itself to be better prepared for the future. It will help those laid off find new work and pay them for at least eight weeks.