Norwegian Cruise Line Tests SpaceX Starlink on Norwegian Breakaway

Norwegian Breakaway

After Royal Caribbean and Hurtigruten, Norwegian Cruise Line could be the next cruise company to form a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starlink Satellite Internet, according to a report from CrewCenter.

According to multiple sources including Teslarati, Norwegian Cruise Line has already installed 11 Starlink dishes aboard the Norwegian Breakaway. 

Teslarati received an email from an anonymous source who said that the Norwegian Breakaway is the company’s first ship to test Starlink. 

“On a Norwegian Breakaway cruise and spotted 11 Starlink dishes. Eight here on the top sundeck and 3 more behind me. It’s not active yet, that I can see, as speeds are slow. The IP address doesn’t show Starlink, and the latency is still 600+ ms,” the source said in an email.

“But at least the dishes are installed, which means a launch is imminent. I’ll talk to someone tomorrow sometime and try to gather more information. When it does launch, it will mean faster speeds, lower latency, and an overall great internet experience compared to the current satellite system. I hope they lower the prices to something more reasonable, like $10-15 per day for premium.”

The anonymous source also shared several photos of the installations. 

Starlink is a high-speed satellite internet service operated by SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk in 2002. As of September 2022, Starlink has launched over 3,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit. 

Starlink provides coverage across 40 countries and has over 500,000 active subscribers. 

In June 2022, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission authorized Elon Musk’s to use Starlink internet with moving vehicles including ships, boats, and planes.

Royal Caribbean Group became the first cruise company to announce it will adopt satellite internet aboard all of its ships. In October, Hurtigruten Expeditions followed announcing that the installations of Starlink across its fleet would be completed in October. 

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