Kicker - Pigeon problems

NICK EICHER, HOST: Elon Musk has conquered electric cars and space flight. But it appears his satellite internet service has hit a bit of a snag and it’s a problem he can’t really control.

Starlink is the internet-providing side-project of Musk’s SpaceX. To date, it has shipped more than 100,000 terminals providing high-speed internet beamed from a constellation of satellites.

But there’s one challenge that Starlink engineers didn’t anticipate. There’s nothing wrong with the tech. There’s a bug. Well, not a bug really, something a little bigger.

Customers of Starlink are reporting spotty service and some are blaming it on pigeons attracted to the rooftop satellite dishes.

While testing the platform, University of Surrey professor Alan Woodward said he experienced several outages—that he can only attribute to pigeons climbing on or into the rooftop dish.

He speculated the birds may be confusing the gray dish for a birdbath.

It’s The World and Everything in It.

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