🛰️ A pickup truck is flying over your house

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🤯 WOW! One of the new Starlink satellites launching Sept. 28 can stream 40,000 Netflix movies in 4K at the same time. And when it dies in five years, nobody fixes it.

📖 Read time: 2.25 gloriously fun minutes

I’m a bit of a space nerd. So when I saw this, I thought you’d like to know, too.

On Sept. 28, while you’re pouring coffee, SpaceX will try to put Starship into orbit for the first time. Riding along: 26 new Starlink satellites that could make your internet faster than cable’s best plan.

Here’s what you need to know.

Starlink satellites weigh about 1,270 pounds. Picture a golf cart with two people in it. The new V3 model is a different animal. SpaceX hasn’t published the number, but FCC filings point to 4,400 to 5,500 pounds. That’s a Ford F-150 flying 210 miles over your house.

Bigger means faster. One V3 pushes 1 terabit per second of downlink. The previous model does 96 gigabits. That’s 10 times the capacity, which SpaceX says is enough to deliver gigabit speeds to homes.

Put that in living-room terms. One of these satellites could stream 40,000 Netflix movies in 4K at the same time. And SpaceX says it eventually wants 100,000 of them up there. Yes, you read that right.

About 11,100 Starlinks now serve 13 million broadband customers. Rural America wins big here. If the cable trucks won’t drive out to you or if tired of your current provider, this is your story.

I asked that question and here’s the answer: Nobody fixes it. There’s no repairman in orbit.

Each Starlink is designed to last about five years. When data says it’s sick or worn out, it fires its own thrusters, lowers itself and steers toward the open ocean. Around 78 miles up, it burns. SpaceX says 95% vaporizes.

This is happening constantly. One or two Starlinks burn up every single day. SpaceX deorbited 260 from December to May, and 406 in 2024 after a defect in the first generation.

FYI, that slow “shooting star” breaking into pieces? Probably a Starlink coming home. Isn’t that wild?

Astronomer Jonathan McDowell has a worry worth hearing. If even 1% of SpaceX’s satellite constellation dies before they can steer themselves down, that would mean hundreds of truck-size derelicts nobody controls. He calls that Kessler syndrome territory, where one collision cascades into thousands. That would be bad.

Launch window opens Monday, Sept. 28 at 8:15 a.m. ET (5:15 a.m. Pacific). Streams are free at spacex.com/launches and on X. I’ll be up at 5:15 with my matcha tea.

Fun fact: The rocket is 408 feet tall, 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. Starship will circle Earth six times over 10 hours, drop off the satellites, then splash down in the Pacific.

FYI, Starship has never reached orbit. July’s launch was a test. This one’s the real thing.

Before you make a request, I don’t tell satellite jokes. They’re always over your head, and they never land.

📩 Send this to someone who thinks satellites last forever. Use these links below.

🏥 Denied by a spreadsheet: Medicare handed prior approvals in six states to AI vendors in January. This month, the EFF forced out 1,000 pages on how it’s going. Two vendors denied 5,944 requests in three months. One said no more often than yes. One patient waited 83 days for an answer that’s supposed to take 72 hours. Get this, the vendors get paid per denial. A nurse’s note in the records: “I had to watch 3 patients cry at bedside.” Only about 1 in 9 seniors ever appeals, and 4 in 5 who do win. Fight a robot with a robot, here’s a link to my copy-and-paste prompt that writes the appeal for you.

Ground control to Major AI: Starting this week, the FAA is switching on an AI system called SMART in the Washington, D.C., airspace, one of the busiest in the country. It crunches schedules, weather and airport capacity to spot jams before they form. Humans still control every plane. The FAA is 1,500 controllers short and says nearly 40% of its systems are “unsustainable.” Good news: The AI can’t call in sick.

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Prime time payday: Amazon is paying a $2.5 billion FTC settlement for tricking people into Prime and burying the cancel button, and the checks got bigger and easier. The cap jumped from $51 to $200. Used 11 to 20 Prime perks in a year? You qualify now. $845 million is already out; more lands October 1 by Venmo, PayPal or check. Zero forms. Any email asking you to “claim your refund” is a scam.

🔌 Mom said no: Mark Zuckerberg’s 11-year-old daughter is vibe coding. She builds messaging apps and games with AI and wanted a dating site next. Priscilla Chan shut it down. Her rule: “Mom doesn’t let her build things that are open to the internet,” Chan told Colossus. So the man who built the internet’s biggest playground has a kid who isn’t allowed on it. Take the hint, parents.

⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Think you only spend a few minutes on YouTube? Open the YouTube app > Settings > Time management. You’ll see your daily average, whether it’s up or down from last week and your total for the past seven days. That last number can hurt. Tap Remind me to take a break and choose how many minutes or hours between nudges. 

🔐 How many passwords do you actually remember? I stopped trying. NordPass creates strong, unique passwords, remembers them for me and autofills them when I need them. It’s the password manager I use and recommend. Get 55% off, just $1.34/month.* 

🚨 Windows is about to expire: If you’re running Windows 11 24H2 Home or Pro, security updates stop on Oct. 13. That’s less than four weeks away. Your PC will still work, but it’ll be more vulnerable to hackers. Check your version at Settings > System > About. See 24H2? Head to Settings > Windows Update > Check for updates and install 25H2. Do it today while you’re thinking about it. Future you, on Oct. 14, says thanks.

Your home screen’s getting crowded: Download an app, and Android gives it a spot on your home screen. A little presumptuous. Long-press an empty area, tap Settings and turn off Add new apps to Home screen. For icons already there, long-press and tap Remove. That removes the shortcut, not the app. You can finally see the doggo you set as your wallpaper.

📺 Stop reaching behind the TV: Cable box in, Xbox out, streaming stick back in. Your HDMI ports have a waiting list. A 3-in, 1-out HDMI switch connects three devices to one TV port, so you can switch without swapping cables. Check that it supports the resolution and refresh rate you use. Your kid can have the Xbox back. Your back can have the evening off.

🆕 More things to try in macOS 27 today:

🚶🏼‍♀️ Take me on a walk: Click to listen to my latest show on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I also make chores go by faster!

Even robots are being replaced by robots.

China’s UBTECH opened a 150,000-square-foot factory in Liuzhou built to produce more than 10,000 robots a year. At full stride, the line is designed to finish one every 10 minutes, while other robots haul materials, feed workstations and palletize the finished metal offspring. 

Think Willy Wonka’s factory, except the Oompa Loompas might end up in a highlight reel karate chopping kids. 

At this rate, the only remaining human job will be resetting the Wi-Fi.

Check it out.

🎓 What you learned today: Starlink satellites are getting much bigger and faster, dead satellites burn up almost daily, AI blasting out Medicare rehab denials, the FAA is untangling flight traffic with AI, plus more macOS tricks. Not bad for one email. Imagine being told your car killed three people while you know you were in bed. Tomorrow, I’ll share a harrowing story of how license plate cameras are causing a nightmare for a woman. Don’t miss this one.

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🛰️ The answer: C) Up to 290 Mbps. Yep, Tristan da Cunha, the most remote inhabited island on Earth (it’s between Africa and Argentina), switched on Starlink in September 2024 and went from about 10 Mbps for the whole island to nearly 300 Mbps. 

That’s a 30x speed glow-up overnight for a place with one road, one pub, a few hundred neighbors. The day after, the chief islander hopped on a video call with London like he was in Leeds. Meanwhile, you’re paying $90 a month for cable that buffers when you have friends over for the big game. 

If the middle of the ocean can get 290 Mbps, so can you. Look up your address on the FCC broadband map and see what you’re being sold.

I leave you with this: When is an island not an island? When it is nothing atoll.

If you have time, I watched parts of this documentary about Tristan da Cunha. The history and how they live now is interesting.

Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily

🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.

Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, Bissell, Plymax, UBTECH

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