A SpaceX employee posted a series of stories on Instagram showing the unboxing and setup of a Starlink user terminal. The unit is likely part of early beta testing and appears to have been set up at the employee’s residence.
SpaceX Lead Manufacturing Engineer and webcast host Jessie Anderson posted a series of Instagram stories documenting the unboxing and setup process of a SpaceX Starlink user terminal. The series of eight stories were posted to Anderson’s personal Instagram handle (@whoisheartbreak) and have since expired.
Upon opening the Starlink user terminal box, Anderson explained that one of the primary goals for the engineers designing the terminal was ensuring the user setup was as simple as possible. This is echoed in the unboxing experience that features a dish, router, power adapter, cables, and a simple one-page “Starlink Quick Start” guide.
In one of the last stories Anderson posted, she explained that once she had completed the setup and plugged it in, the dish began moving, completing the setup automatically.
Despite the apparent ease of setup, the final story was telling. As Anderson did not have anywhere to mount the dish, she placed it on the floor of her balcony. The balcony appears to have another balcony above it, which means the user terminal likely does not have an ideal line of sight to operate effectively. It is currently unclear how much this kind of setup could affect connectivity.
Although much of the setup process appears to be easy enough that anyone could do it, mounting the dish does not. This could be done with even basic knowledge however, getting permission to do so especially in apartment buildings could be more challenging.
