All things considered, SpaceX’s experimental Starlink satellite internet service is a success. Users are generally quite happy with the service, and SpaceX chucked an extra 49 Starlink satellites into Earth’s orbit just last week. But Starlink customers beware—sleepy cats are conspiring against you.
Starlink satellite dishes include a useful self-heating feature to prevent signal degradation in snowy climates. But as it turns out, and this shouldn’t be much of a surprise, cats and kittens love to lay in a self-heated bowl.
Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days. pic.twitter.com/uyH3Kbqrie
— Aaron Taylor (@Tippen22) December 31, 2021
In a photo shared by Starlink customer Aaron Taylor on Twitter, you can see five cats bundling up on a heated Starlink satellite. All of these cats have warm homes to sleep in, but as Aaron notes, they prefer to sit in the heated satellite dish while the sun reigns down on their backs.
The cats failed to disconnect Aaron from the web, though they did slow his internet down a bit. Unfortunately, it seems that SpaceX may need to install some anti-cat technology in future satellite dishes.
SpaceX suggests placing Starlink equipment in hard-to-reach places, like the roof of a home. According to Aaron, his Starlink satellite location (on the ground outside) is just a temporary solution.
Source: Aaron Taylor via Gizmodo
