WiFi in space: how do astronauts connect to the Internet?

Can you imagine being in a place where, for a long period of time, you cannot connect to the Internet? Today, everything is in the cloud, from everyday applications needed for work to apps and streaming entertainment services. You can download things, but it’s hard not to use the cloud all day.

But… what happens in space? How do astronauts connect to the Internet? The truth is that the topic is quite curious and it is interesting to see how it has evolved in recent years, with the Internet also being a fundamental tool for astronauts.

Taking the Internet to Space

It’s funny, but astronauts have better Internet on the International Space Station than many people at home. In fact, in many cities in many countries (not in Spain, since we have one of the best connections worldwide), the Internet connection is slower than on the International Space Station .

In January 2010, astronaut Timothy Creamer sent the first tweet from the International Space Station, the first sent from outside Earth, and evidently many people began to wonder about the speed of the astronauts’ Internet.

At that time, they had a speed of about 10 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload . It was enough to watch some streaming video, comparable to many terrestrial connections from 13 years ago and, of course, a luxury considering that they were about 400 kilometers from Earth and at a speed of 28,800 kilometers per hour.

However, speed didn’t seem like a problem, but latency did. According to certain NASA sources , the latency was half a second , more or less, about 20 times higher than the average terrestrial connections.

But… how does the Internet reach the International Space Station? The answer is Ku band. It is a system that uses the range of 11 to 20′ Ghz to send data thanks to a satellite system that orbits the Earth and was used years ago to make television transmissions. This signal arrives thanks to the Space Network antenna network and the TDRS -Tracking and Data Relay Satellites- system.

There are certain situations where there can be interference and, in space, there are times when they are left without signal, but these are short periods. Now, NASA recently updated the system so that the speed was greater. Much older.

In 2019, NASA reported that they were increasing the network connection speed with a 600 Mbps download . It is a speed that exceeds that of many points on Earth and within the station itself there are several forms of connection.

Obviously, the mainstay is Ethernet , a cable network that runs through all the facilities and is what allows desktop and laptop computers to connect to the Internet. From this Ethernet connection, a WiFi network is generated for portable devices and, in addition, a local network to communicate between modules.

And the question is… can you watch Netflix in Space? We don’t know about Netflix , but they have enough speed to watch movies. It is something they confirmed a few years ago, revealing that they have a movie night on Saturdays and Sundays to watch movies on a projector.

Now, as we say, although they have Internet in space, they continue to depend on the satellite system that sends the Ku signal and there are periods in which the signal is not optimal, which can cause interference . And about the movies they watch in Space, they seem to love science fiction, space disaster movies and stuff. Also, as some astronauts said on CNBC, they watch series like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Better Call Saul’.

I wouldn’t want to be up there and see something like ‘Alien’ or ‘Final Horizon’, honestly . And, well, we have focused on the current base, the ISS, but both China and Russia are preparing modules with Internet for their future bases of operations, but that is something that will have to be addressed when they are ready.